MORE ADDICTS COULD BE GIVEN FREE HEROIN

DAVID Blunkett, the Home Secretary, is reported to be looking at increasing
five-fold the number of people being given free heroin as a report by a
leading former police chief constable, which promotes the idea as a way to
reduce drug-related crime in Britain, is to be published.

In the new report by former chief constable of Gwent, Francis Wilkinson -
who has been backed by the outspoken Sir David Ramsbotham, former Chief
Inspector of Prisons - government ministers will be urged to provide free
heroin to addicts across the country in a bid to reduce drug-related crime.

But it has been reported that David Blunkett, who recently caused a storm
by revealing that cannabis will be reclassified as a Class C drug, putting
it in the same category as amphetamines and steroids, is already looking
seriously at the idea of increasing the number of addicts being given the drug.

The Home Secretary is said to have ordered a review of heroin prescription
and is keen to see an increase in the number of people being given the drug
free of charge to 1,500, meaning a five-fold increase in the numbers
currently being given free heroin.

The new report, entitled "Heroin: The Failure of Prohibition and What To Do
Now", calls for the drug to be provided on demand to addicts in need. It is
due to be published tomorrow by the Centre for Reform.

It is expected the report will argue that providing heroin for addicts
would rid Britain of its organised crime, stating that gangs in the UK
control Britain's ?4.7 billion heroin trade, and further deprive terrorists
of their main source of income. It will also argue that the move would mean
addicts, who they say spend an average of ?16,500 a year on drugs, would
not need to steal to feed their habit.

Mr Wilkinson states in the report: "For heroin alone, the effective
regulation of supply could be reasonably expected to result in a 20 per
cent drop in crime."

The report also urges the government to provide secure clinics to oversee
the supply of heroin and methadone in a controlled manner and residential
"detoxification clinics" for addicts to overcome their habit.

The revelations follow newspaper reports that heroin addicts should be
allowed to inject their methadone replacement so they experience an
authentic "hit".

Dr Tom Gilhooly, the head of Glasgow's controversial methadone programme
and government drugs adviser, was reported to have said that hundreds of
addicts were not taking the substitute because it did not give them the
same "high" as they got when they took heroin.

He advocated addicts injecting the drug, saying that in some cases oral
substitution for heroin addiction did not work.

Sir David Ramsbotham, former Chief Inspector of Prisons, has already hit
the headlines after being outspoken about both the legalisation of cannabis
and the early release of James Bulger's killers, Robert Thompson and Jon
Venables. He was ordered to apologise for his comments about Thomson and
Venables by the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw.