POLICE CHIEF BACKS LEGALISED 'DRUG ROOMS'

Drug addicts should be allowed to take heroin, crack cocaine and other
illegal drugs in legalised rooms run by the Government, according to a
group of experts who include one of Britain's most senior police officers.

But Robert Whelan, the deputy director of the think-tank Civitas,
said: "This is legalising drugs through the backdoor and is an
obnoxious proposal by a committee of do-gooders."

A report published today and funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
says drug consumption rooms would let addicts take drugs in
"supervised, hygienic conditions", reducing drug-related deaths and
diseases.

The rooms would also reduce the number of drug injections that take
place every day in back streets, lavatories and parks, and combat the
problem of discarded needles, of which 147,345 were collected in
England in 2004.

A recommendation by the Home Affairs Committee in 2002 to set up the
rooms was rejected because of legal concerns and fears that they would
attract drug dealers.

Today's report has been drawn up by an independent working group whose
members include Andy Hayman, chairman of the Association of Chief
Police Officers' drugs committee and assistant commissioner of the
Metropolitan police, Dame Ruth Runciman, chairman of the Central and
North West London Mental Health NHS Trust, and Prof John Strang,
director of the National Addiction Centre.

An investigation for BBC1's Six O'Clock News last night found that
three out of four people saw the sale and use of illegal drugs as a
problem in their area.