NEW STEP IN HELP HEROIN USERS PLEA

A County Group's Call For Help For Heroin Addicts Is To Be Considered By
The Prime Minister

MP for Wellingborough and Rushden Paul Stinchcombe has drafted an article
for Tony Blair after consultation with Wellingborough prisoners on
rehabilitation programmes.

It follows articles in the ET in April which investigated the scourge of
heroin in the county and a call from an east Northamptonshire pressure
group for help for heroin users so they stop committing crimes to feed
their habit.

The group asked Mr Stinchcombe to help get an opiate blocking implant
licensed - an addiction treatment which is currently only available at a
private London clinic.

Mr Stinchcombe has researched the effects of heroin on society and the
implant and written to Mr Blair about it. Now he plans to send an article
calling for a rethink of the Government's drug policy.

Mr Stinchcombe said: "The article was drafted following meetings with many
constituents gravely affected by drugs and drug-related crime - mothers and
sisters of addicts in prison, pensioners mugged by those who need money to
buy drugs, residents who have seen dealers selling drugs openly in their
estates and kids who have picked up discarded needles thrown into their own
back garden."

Inmates at Wellingborough prison agreed with arguments made in Mr
Stinchcombe's article which states: "It is vital that we start a grown-up
debate on one of the greatest problems of our age - how to tackle the
scourge of drug addiction and drug-related crime."

He has highlighted what he calls three "truths" which if recognised he
feels would have stopped the failure of other drug policies.

* Some drugs are worse than others and that children should be taught this

* Criminalising people who smoke cannabis is counterproductive in that
aggressive policing of cannabis users stands in the way of effective law
enforcement of those who deal in hard drugs

* Addicts are ill, not necessarily wicked, and need to be treated not punished

Mr Stinchcombe plans to add two other points raised by prisoners to his
article. They said that 90 per cent of ecstasy tablets are cut with other
drugs such as heroin and that dealers will try anything to get people
hooked on heroin and crack.