PROFESSOR CALLS FOR HEROIN TO BE MADE LEGAL

A FORMER government drugs adviser has called for heroin to be legalised and
says that if addicts want to kill themselves by using the drug they should
be allowed to do so.

Speaking at a conference focusing on substitute prescribing, held at
Stiring Royal Infirmary yesterday, Professor John Davies of Strathclyde
University claimed that the criminal status of the drug fostered a
"helpless junkie" culture which encouraged addicts to abdicate
responsiblity for their actions when they got into trouble.

Professor Davies said: "If somebody has a desire to kill themselves through
drug use, provided it doesn't interfere with anybody else's liberty, I
don't see why they shouldn't be allowed to do so. You can kill yourself
hang gliding, you can kill yourself climbing mountains."

At the conference, which was organised by the Scottish Drugs Forum, the
psychology professor went on to argue that methadone, prescribed by doctors
to addicts as a heroin substitute, was not always successful. Some people,
he said, got "parked on methadone for long periods of time" and were "not
having any fun from their drug use, and they're not getting any better". He
added: "If that helps to reduce crime and so on, that's fine, but in some
instances it's not doing that person any good at all."

A member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and editor of the journal
Addiction Research, Professor Davies has studied drug addiction since the
1960s and was involved in the first methodone scheme introduced at Saughton
Prison in Edinburgh.

Calling for drugs to be made legal, he said: "The hope would be that you
would get an increase in prevalence, but a reduction in harmful, damaging
drug use."

But George Hall, acting director of Scotland Against Drugs, the
Government's anti-drugs agency, dismissed the idea that making drugs freely
available would solve the problem.

"Professor Davies should come down from his academic ivory tower and live
in the real world," he said. "Entire communities are being destroyed by
today's drugs culture. He is clearly at odds with every reasonable and
responsible person battling to stop this menace from engulfing society."