GIVE IT AWAY NOW?

One of the UK's top cops says his country's health system should be
prescribing heroin to hardcore addicts, according to a published media report.

Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers,
told Britain's Independent newspaper that prescribing heroin would
reduce crime rates and prevent overdose deaths.

"You need to understand there is a hardcore, a minority, who
nevertheless commit masses of crime to feed their addiction," Jones
told the paper last month.

"We have got to be realistic.

"I have looked into the whites of these people's eyes and many have
no interest whatsoever in coming off drugs. We have to find a way of
dealing with them, and licensed prescription is definitely something
we should be thinking about."

Jones isn't the first law enforcement official in the UK to advocate
for prescribed heroin, but he is reportedly the most senior officer
to support the idea.

Canada's Debate

In an interview with 24 hours, his Canadian counterpart took a more
cautious position.

"Heroin prescription programs are a treatment program, and any of the
debate and discussion about a particular mode of treatment really
needs to happen within the medical community," said Barry MacKnight,
Fredericton, New Brunswick's chief of police and chair of the
Canadian Association of Police Chiefs' drug abuse committee.

MacKnight said he would prefer that law enforcement stay out of the
debate until medical experts have had their say. "We want to become
engaged in that only if it becomes a public-safety issue," MacKnight said.

"But I would certainly say if there are effective treatment programs
that can be applied in a community and there are no substantial
public safety issues, that's just a win for all of us."

In the UK, specially licensed doctors are technically already allowed
to prescribe heroin, but the numbers are limited. About 450 addicts
of an estimated 40,000 'registered' heroin addicts get their dosage
through prescriptions, according to the British based policy research
group DrugScope.

In Vancouver, the NAOMI study gives addicts heroin in a clinical
setting. One participant says he's already benefiting from the study.

'It's Been Huge'

Greg L., who didn't want his full name used, spent years doing petty
crimes to feed his habit.

"I've been doing drugs for 21 years," said the 39-year-old. "For a
while there I was doing break and enters. I was stealing cars and
using them to do smash and grabs on businesses at night."

He stopped committing crimes after getting on a program prescribing
methadone -- a synthetic drug often used as a heroin substitute. But
he says he was kicked out after a disagreement six months ago,
sending his life into a spiral.

"It was getting really bad here at the end of six months off
methadone. I was running out of options of getting money to get the
[heroin] dose I needed," Greg said.

He began to wonder how far he was willing to go again to get that
money. "I started scoping out stores again. I was looking at stores,
seeing what the possibility is of getting in and getting out," he said.

"If it got bad enough I thought I might do it." Instead, Greg was
accepted into the NAOMI study. Three times a day, he'll be given a
dose of heroin to feed his habit. It's only been two weeks so far,
but Greg is optimistic. "It's been huge in stabilizing my life," he
said. "I don't want to get back into [crime]. Now that I know I'm
going to be well, it's taken a lot off my shoulders. It's made a me a
lot more calm."

Scientific results from the trial are expected next fall.