poledriver
Bluelighter
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- Jul 21, 2005
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Don't arrest addicts, give them free drugs, Chief Constable says
Drug addicts are not bad people and should be given support and treatment rather than regarded as criminals, one of the country’s most senior police officers has said.
Mike Barton, the Chief Constable of Durham, said arresting and charging addicts was a waste of time and money.
In a highly controversial intervention, Mr Barton, who has spent 34-years as a police officer, advocated giving registered addicts free heroin and allowing them to take the drug in so-called ‘consumption room’.
He said police needed help to tackle the growing blight of drugs, but it was unrealistic to think that we can “arrest our way out of the problem”.
Writing on the Huffington Post website, Mr Barton said: “The stigma of addiction is a pernicious and inhumane phenomenon.
The continuing description of drug addicts as criminals rather than people who are unhealthy or sick prevents them getting well and consigns their family to years of misery and often destitution.”
Mr Barton is no stranger to controversy and three years ago hit the headlines when he called for an honest debate on the legalisation of drugs.
But he said having studied drug treatment programmes elsewhere including in Denmark, he was now convinced that the best way forward was to stop criminalising addicts.
He also criticised the methadone programme, where addicts were given a synthetic form of the drug on prescription.
Mr Barton said of the 1,700 registered addicts in his force area, a significant number “topped up” by taking street heroin as well as methadone.
He said: “If addicted people presenting for treatment are likely to “top-up” then why not provide them with heroin rather than methadone?”
He also insisted that it was “bogus” to argue that providing heroin was more expensive than methadone.
“When drug addicts become infected with hepatitis or HIV then they will be treated with antiretroviral drugs, estimated at £80,000 per annum – so any argument that we don’t want to give people heroin on the NHS are so short-sighted – if we don’t then we pick up an exponentially bigger bill.”
Mr Barton said he supported the introduction of closely monitored consumption rooms where addicts could be supplied with heroin and take the drug in relative safety.
Under his proposals addicts would only be allowed to inject if they could prove they had not sourced their drugs from criminals.
Cont -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...ive-them-free-drugs-Chief-Constable-says.html
Drug addicts are not bad people and should be given support and treatment rather than regarded as criminals, one of the country’s most senior police officers has said.
Mike Barton, the Chief Constable of Durham, said arresting and charging addicts was a waste of time and money.
In a highly controversial intervention, Mr Barton, who has spent 34-years as a police officer, advocated giving registered addicts free heroin and allowing them to take the drug in so-called ‘consumption room’.
He said police needed help to tackle the growing blight of drugs, but it was unrealistic to think that we can “arrest our way out of the problem”.
Writing on the Huffington Post website, Mr Barton said: “The stigma of addiction is a pernicious and inhumane phenomenon.
The continuing description of drug addicts as criminals rather than people who are unhealthy or sick prevents them getting well and consigns their family to years of misery and often destitution.”
Mr Barton is no stranger to controversy and three years ago hit the headlines when he called for an honest debate on the legalisation of drugs.
But he said having studied drug treatment programmes elsewhere including in Denmark, he was now convinced that the best way forward was to stop criminalising addicts.
He also criticised the methadone programme, where addicts were given a synthetic form of the drug on prescription.
Mr Barton said of the 1,700 registered addicts in his force area, a significant number “topped up” by taking street heroin as well as methadone.
He said: “If addicted people presenting for treatment are likely to “top-up” then why not provide them with heroin rather than methadone?”
He also insisted that it was “bogus” to argue that providing heroin was more expensive than methadone.
“When drug addicts become infected with hepatitis or HIV then they will be treated with antiretroviral drugs, estimated at £80,000 per annum – so any argument that we don’t want to give people heroin on the NHS are so short-sighted – if we don’t then we pick up an exponentially bigger bill.”
Mr Barton said he supported the introduction of closely monitored consumption rooms where addicts could be supplied with heroin and take the drug in relative safety.
Under his proposals addicts would only be allowed to inject if they could prove they had not sourced their drugs from criminals.
Cont -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...ive-them-free-drugs-Chief-Constable-says.html
