GIVE ADDICTS FREE HEROIN, SAYS CHIEF CONSTABLE

A chief constable has called for heroin to be prescribed free to Britain's
300,000 addicts.

Richard Brunstrom, the head of North Wales Police, wants heroin possession
to be decriminalised and people caught with small quantities of the drug to
be treated. His comments are the latest proposal by a senior police officer
for a more liberal approach to drug use.

Mr Brunstrom said pure heroin should be provided on prescription for
addicts, because that would remove the need for users to commit crime to
pay for their habit. He told Police Review magazine: "Heroin does not make
you commit crime; it gets you addicted. If you could get free heroin you
wouldn't commit crime.

"We know that a third of all crime is committed by people to get money to
support their drug habit.

"In theory, at least, if we gave away heroin to those people who needed it,
they should not need to commit crime and crime should go down. Why are we
allowing these people to become criminals?

"Research has found that a serious heroin user needs AUKP100 a day to
finance the habit and as much as 70 per cent of property crime might be
committed to fund addiction.

Mr Brunstrom, who is to make a written submission to the Home Affairs
Select Committee, which is examining the issue of drugs, is expected to say
that the policy based on a war on drugs is "an almost unqualified disaster"
and that there is now a need for a Royal Commission into the problem.

Other senior officers are known to agree with Mr Brunstrom's proposals,
including Sir David Phillips, the Kent Chief Constable, who is the
president of the Association of Chief Police Officers.

Police chiefs are reviewing the association's drug policy and are expected
to recommend a radical shift in thinking on how to deal with addicts. This
could include greater prescribing of heroin and the establishment of
so-called shooting galleries and areas where addicts can get clean needles
and medical care.

At present only a few hundred people are prescribed heroin in Britain. The
Home Office has licensed about 100 doctors who can prescribe heroin. Most
of the addicts have special medical needs and are prescribed methadone, a
heroin substitute, which they must take at chemist's shops or GP's surgeries.

Prescribing pure heroin would also help to prevent the dozens of overdoses
and deaths caused every year by addicts taking contaminated or unexpectedly
strong drugs.

Mr Brunstrom is highly critical of the Government's drugs policy. He said:
"I disagree with the war on drugs policy, but the parts about harm
reduction and health improvements in the Government's strategy is quite
sound stuff. It's not resourced properly and has not been pursued
enthusiastically enough but much of the thinking is there already.

"He believes Britain should adopt the system used in Portugal, where drugs
remain illegal but anyone caught in possession of a small amount of drugs
is put on a course of treatment overseen by a lawyer, a doctor and a social
worker. He said: "I will be astounded if our Government is still pursing
its war on drugs in 10 years' time because I think the Portuguese approach
is going to sweep the world.

"The police service is increasingly in the forefront of radical approaches
to drug use. Police in the south London borough of Lambeth, which includes
Brixton, are operating a scheme under which anyone caught with a small
amount of cannabis escapes with a warning. More than 400 people have been
issued with warnings since the scheme began in July.

Commander Brian Paddick, who runs the scheme, argues that it allows his
officers to concentrate on heroin and crack cocaine dealers.

But many people, including some police officers, are fiercely opposed to
the relaxation of laws towards cannabis, and particularly any class A drug
such as ecstasy or heroin, because they believe such moves encourage
greater abuse and lead to addiction.

While the Home Office publicly says it has no intention of relaxing the
laws on heroin, it is keeping under review the proposal for heroin
"shooting galleries". Also from the Health section.