POLICE URGE MAJOR RETHINK ON HEROIN

Users Would Take Drug In 'Shooting Galleries' To Reduce Need To Steal

Britain's top police officers have called for the mass prescription of
heroin to addicts on the NHS in a move that will be seen as the
decriminalisation of the drug. The officers believe this radical approach
will break the link between addicts and property crime, and allow the police
to concentrate on combating major drugs dealers and organised criminals.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), which represents chief
constables in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, will announce its
revolutionary shift in policy in January. Under the proposals, addicts will
no longer be treated as criminals if they agree to register and inject
prescribed heroin in strictly controlled 'shooting galleries' under medical
supervision.

The scheme, which has been approved by the Acpo president Sir David
Phillips, would operate at specialist units in police stations, GPs'
surgeries and hospitals to allay fears that the officially prescribed heroin
would seep on to the black market.

The move will be seen by opponents as an admission that the 'war on drugs'
has been lost; senior police officers now recognise that the prohibition of
heroin has failed as a strategy.

Their proposals will not need a change in the law, but senior officers
recognise that they will entail a relaxation of the police attitude towards
possession of class A drugs, which now carries a prison sentence of up to
seven years.

Sources close to Phillips said: 'We need to make our position clear, and
move towards the managed stabilisation of addicts. This is common sense to
most people: the alternatives, such as prison, are no longer realistic.'

One problem already identified by experts is the massive increase in the
supply of prescription heroin needed for the scheme. Legal supplies in
Britain are now processed by one factory in Liverpool from a single source
of poppies in Tasmania.

There would also have to be a significant increase in the number of doctors
licensed to prescribe and inject the drug. There are now only around 100 of
them.

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, advocated increasing this total in a
submission to the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee last month.

He is, however, unwilling to extend his plans to reform the law on cannabis
to other drugs, and many doctors are unwilling to help patients take
addictive drugs.

Acpo will propose a national trial early next year, believing a piecemeal
approach would lead to clinics being swamped with addicts, and provoke local
hostility.

It is estimated that around a third of people arrested by the police are
dependent on one or more illegal drugs, and that as much as 70 per cent of
property crime is committed to fund addiction.

The number of heroin addicts in Britain is now estimated to be 50,000, com
pared with fewer than 2,000 in 1970 when the drug was available on
prescription to registered addicts. A serious heroin user needs £100 a day
to fund a habit.

The new Acpo stance has developed from controversial research published two
years ago by Cleveland police in north-east England, which concluded: 'If
there is indeed a "war on drugs" it is not being won; drugs are demonstrably
cheaper and more readily available than ever.'

Dr John Guy, a GP who runs a practice in Middlesbrough dedicated to drug
users, said he wholeheartedly welcomed the proposals. 'A more sensible
approach would benefit everyone: the user's health improves, their lifestyle
stabilises and crime drops for the rest of society.'

Others urged caution. Dame Ruth Runciman, whose Police Foundation report
recommended decriminalising cannabis, said: 'It is not enough just to
prescribe heroin. Any new scheme needs to take into account homelessness,
lack of skills and social deprivation.'

Acpo's Phillips risked further controversy by saying the justice system in
England and Wales was stuck in the Agatha Christie era. 'We are losing the
war against organised crime. The courts are designed to deal with Miss
Marple cases, not the kind of criminality we are currently facing.'

A Home Office spokesman said there were no plans to reclassify heroin.