HEROIN POLICY HAS FAILED, SAY CHARITIES

Government Plans To Let More Doctors Prescribe Drug Were 'Abandoned'

Drugs charities have accused the government of abandoning plans to set up a
network of doctors prescribing pure heroin to addicts.

Two years ago, the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, announced that the
number of licences issued to GPs entitled to prescribe heroin should be
increased from less than 50 to 1,500 in an attempt to take the supply of
the drug out of the hands of criminals.

The move was applauded by drugs organisations, which said the use of
medical heroin - known as diamorphine - would help addicts control their
chaotic lifestyle and stop them being sucked into crime to support their habit.

But new Home Office figures show that the number of prescribing doctors has
barely doubled. The National Treatment Agency, the government body
responsible for dealing with addiction, confirmed that, by March of this
year, only 123 doctors were licenced to prescribe medical heroin.

The majority of Britain's GPs see at least one addict a month and a quarter
treat heroin or cocaine addicts, but only a tiny minority are able to use
heroin itself during treatment and most use the heroin substitute methadone.

The charity Drugscope said that the move towards prescribing heroin was
derailed by the publicity surrounding Harold Shipman, the GP who murdered
at least 215 of his patients using diamorphine. Shipman was jailed for life
in 2000, but the inquiry into the case, led by Dame Janet Smith, has had a
lasting impact on the medical profession.

Smith's fourth report, published in July, called for stricter controls to
avoid the kind of stockpiling that allowed Shipman to build up his supply.

The debate over prescribing will be severely tested later this year by the
investigation by the General Medical Council into seven doctors at the
Stapleford clinic, a private treatment centre for addicts. The six men and
one woman worked in centres in Belgravia, London and Stapleford Tawney,
Essex and are charged with 'excessive and improper' prescribing.

The centre is alleged to have kept patients on lengthy courses of
methadone, rather than cutting the supply sharply as recommended by NHS
guide lines. The defendants include Dr Colin Brewer, the founder of the
centre, who is recognised as an international expert in the field.

The plans to set up the network of prescribing GPs came after a Home
Affairs Select Committee report found that drug misuse by Britain's 250,000
heroin addicts was fuelling drug crime worth UKP20 billion a year. The
committee also recommended establishing safe 'shooting galleries' for
addicts. But these have also failed to take off after councils failed to
persuade residents that they would encourage addicts off the streets.

Drugscope spokeswoman Natasha Vromen said: 'These figures are
disappointing. There were great hopes that the government and doctors were
developing a drugs policy where the health aspects were brought to the
fore. Unfortunately, it is now dominated by the crime agenda.'