[jambutty]

The assistant chief constable of the Nottinghamshire force has come up with a radical idea.

He suggests that drug addicts should receive their daily fix from the NHS, although he specifically mentioned heroin. Some areas already do this where the addicts are given the required dose and watched by a nurse or doctor as they inject themselves. It was reported that drug related crime in those areas has been reduced substantially.

Let us look at this suggestion with a cold and clinical outlook and keep emotion out of the equation.

The war on drug addiction has been fought for more than 30 years and the situation is worse today than it was 30 years ago. So the battle has not been effective and it is time to try a different approach.

It has been claimed that an addict needs about £45,000 per year to feed his/her habit whereas supplying the drug would cost the NHS around £12,000. That £45,000 comes from burglaries and muggings. In other words from us. The £12,000 comes from our taxes.

If an addict were able to get his/her fix from a legitimate source for free s/he would not have a reason to commit crime to get the money to pay for the drug. This in turn would put a huge hole in the dealers’ earnings and probably drive them out of business. That can only be a good thing.

Now I wonder who is going to be the first to broach the stupid retort of “let’s give burglars household goods so they won’t have to go thieving” or “let’s supply paedophiles with children to prevent them from attacking kids”?

This issue is about drug addicts and how to counter them and the crimes that they commit to feed the habit in the most cost effective way.