POLICE CHIEF: LEGALISE HEROIN

A CONTROVERSIAL police chief has called for the legalisation of all
drugs, including heroin, in a report published today.

Police chief constable of North Wales, Richard Brunstrom, says that
police are currently in a battle against drugs which they cannot win.

He says the current system has "not worked well" and that "illegal
drugs are now in plentiful supply, and have become consistently
cheaper in real terms over the years."

In the report to North Wales police authority, he described the
Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 as "not fit for purpose" and "immoral" and
thinks the way forward is to repeal it.

Repeal

"The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 should be repealed and replaced by a
new Substance Misuse Act based upon the legalisation and careful
regulation of all substances of abuse in one consistent manner," he writes.

The report is in response to the HM Government Consultation paper
"Drugs: Our community, your say", and the forthcoming Welsh Assembly
Government consultation on the all Wales substance misuse strategy.

He writes in the report: "If policy on drugs is in future to be
pragmatic and realistic, driven by ethics not dogma, then the current
prohibitionist stance will have to be swept away as both unworkable
and immoral...

"Such a strategy leads inevitably to the legalisation and regulation
of all drugs."

Charitable think-tank The Transform Drug Policy Foundation (TDPF)
said: "We are absolutely delighted at Mr Brunstrom's paper.

"The chief constable has displayed great leadership and imagination
in very publicly calling for a drug policy that replaces the evident
failings of prohibition with a legal system of regulation and control
for potentially dangerous drugs."

But MP for Alyn and Deeside Mark Tami said that drugs policy was not
"black and white", and that saying heroin must be legalised was
"blinkered and dangerous".

A Downing Street website petition urging the Prime Minister to sack
Mr Brunstrom has gained more than 3,500 signatures.