£500M CRIME BILL CHARGED BY ADDICTS

The average heroin addict funding a 'modest' daily drug habit from crime
has to steal more than £43,000 worth of goods a year, according to a
leading expert.

A daily gramme costs about £280 a week, or £14,560 a year, but stolen goods
attract only a third of their market value, Peter Worden told a meeting
last week at the Royal Society of Medicine in London.

Users turning to prostitution may charge £15 a customer, or £20 for sex
without a condom, said Mr Worden, of the West Lancashire Community Drug
Team. This means a user would need only two customers a day to meet her
drug needs, but it could mean 730 unprotected sexual encounters a year.

The Stapleford Trust, comprising specialists in addiction and related
crime, also heard the results of research by Professor Michael Hough of
South Bank University in London. He estimates there are at least 100,000
drug users in England and Wales, each spending £200 a week.

'Their drug bill is at least £1 billion a year,' he said. 'At least half of
this sum is raised through crime, reflecting losses to business and
homeowners of at least £1.5 billion.'

Professor Philip Bean, of the Midlands Centre for Criminology and Criminal
Justice, said that addiction costs in the US had been cut substantially by
'drug courts'. Offenders have to attend court at the judge's request, while
treatment agencies have to give up-to-date information about their
progress. If the offenders are 'clean', they may win a round of applause, a
doughnut from the judge or a T-shirt declaring: 'I'm too good for drugs.'

'In my experience, there is one good idea in jurisprudence every 10 years.
This is it,' added Prof Bean.

Copyright Guardian Media Group plc 1998