MIXED RESPONSE FOR 'HEROIN ON NHS' PLAN

Heroin Could Be Prescribed To More Addicts

Drugs workers have given a mixed reaction to reports that MPs are to
support moves for more addicts to be prescribed heroin on the NHS.

The Observer reported that the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee is to
back the idea when it issues a report next week into Britain's drug problems.

Home Secretary David Blunkett called in October for more addicts to be
prescribed heroin, if that was one way to deal with drug addiction and
drug-related crime.

Mr Blunkett believes more people dependent on drugs should get access to
them on prescription provided they agree to seek treatment.

Drugs charity Drugscrope said wider heroin prescription was a good idea.

Spokesman Harry Shapiro said: "We would welcome this as a move to reducing
drug-related crime.

"If they attach to that the capacity for the setting-up of safe injecting
rooms, that would be even better."

'Injecting rooms'

Liberal Democrat home affairs Simon Hughes spokesman said: "Heroin should
be available on prescription because obtaining it through safe outlets is
much safer than forcing addicts back into the hands of dealers.

"Locking up addicts is also no answer.

"When we have the biggest prison overcrowding problem in Europe, putting
more people in prison is no good for the drug users or for the British
penal system."

However Les Vasey, a former police officer who now chairs a drugs
rehabilitation clinic in Huddersfield, criticised the idea.

"It's tantamount to the NHS giving out alcohol to alcoholics," he said.

"What it's basically saying is OK, we recognise you've got a problem, and
we think we can provide you with a better substance to maintain your habit
than you can buy on the streets."

The MPs will also reportedly propose the use of controversial "safe
injecting areas", such as those seen in some continental countries.

At the moment, about 300 addicts around the country are prescribed heroin.

A Home Office spokeswoman told the newspaper that there was nothing new in
proposals to make greater use of diamorphine - so-called medical heroin.

She said: "The home secretary's position has not changed since October when
he said that doctors should prescribe more drugs if that is a way to bring
addicts in for treatment."

A Department of Health spokesman said that "heroin is not available on the
NHS" and stresed there were no plans to make it available.

"Diamorphine is currently available to a very small number of drug users
prescribed by specialist GPs and we don't have any plans to change that,"
he said.

Think tank debate

The Observer also reports that next week's Commons Home Affairs Select
Committee report will recommend that cannabis be downgraded from a Class B
drug to a Class C drug, with ecstasy reclassified as a Class B drug.

Separately, a left-wing think tank is to debate whether legalisation would
be the best way to conquer Britain's drugs problem.

The Foreign Policy Centre, of which Prime Minister Tony Blair is patron,
will discuss whether it would be better to deal with the causes of drug
abuse rather than concentrating on punishing users.

Its debate is scheduled to take place next week before the select committee
report is published.