http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/6172392.stm</p> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="629" border="0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="3"><div class="mxb"><div class="sh">Give addicts heroin, says officer </div></div></td></tr><tr><td valign="top" width="416"><font size="2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="203" align="right" border="0"><tbody><tr><td><div> <div class="cap">Howard Roberts said prescribing heroin to criminals would cut crime</div></div></td></tr></tbody></table>Heroin should be prescribed to drug addicts to tackle crime, the deputy chief constable of Nottinghamshire has said at a drugs conference. Howard Roberts told an Association of Chief Police Officers' conference in Manchester the idea should be assessed. </p> He said the treatment would cost £12,000-a-year per addict but added that drug users steal on average £45,000-worth of property a year. </p> The idea is being piloted in London, the south east and north of England. </p> "At the moment across the country we see levels of burglary, robbery and murder being committed by drug-fuelled addicts who are doing so in order to get the money to buy the drugs," Mr Roberts told the drugs conference. </p> "One of the things I have found that as treatment has been highly effective in actually helping to reduce crime, we've seen good levels of falls in drug-related acquisitive crime. </p> "However there is still a considerable problem and what I am suggesting is that we need to explore, as part of a treatment programme, the prescribing of heroin to addicts in order to take them out of the illegal market." </p> Improve treatment </p> The manager of a Nottinghamshire-based support service for families of drug users, supported the police chief's call. </p> "I'm delighted that police are taking drug treatment options more seriously and have been doing so over the last few years," said Nina Dauban, manager of Mansfield-based Hetty's. </p> "In the past police have been forced to go down the enforcement and criminal justice route that doesn't always solve the problem. </p> "There is a lot of criminality around drugs, reducing the level of criminality is really important in improving treatment for addicts. </p> "All tribute to him saying this, it's typical of Nottinghamshire Police not to be frightened to speak about their convictions. </p> "We're not here to win a popularity contest we're out to improve services for drug users." </p></font></td></tr></tbody></table></p> Here's an idea - we take heroin addicts into a room and shoot them in the back of the head after their third drug related conviction. I'd be more ready to do that than give them heroin as an effective reward for the threat of committing offences.</p> What effectively this bloke is proposing is that when a smack head threatens to commit crime we should beg them not to do it and give them heroin to keep them happy. Something must be going wrong.</p> There are already Drug Testing and Treatment Orders, there are already methodone prescriptions and engagement programmes for those who want to get off drugs - all this does is give people who would consider getting into drugs a perfect reason to get started 'Don't worry, you'll never get into a position where you can't afford it, because the stupid tax payers will foot the bill, it's great'. Watch the costs snow ball then. Add to this the fact that nobody ever has a valid reason to leave heroin addiction behind and society really takes a kick in the nackers.</p>
Or if its purely a financial thing... We could hire a hitman at say £100,000 a year - if he can off at least 9 heroin addicts then we any more would be a saving. this of course has the added bonus of being a dtterent to others taking up the habit.
Human rights legislation mate. Also the hitman may sue you for post traumatic stress, not having been given the right level of counselling.
I think thats a job made in heaven for me and you that one... Does it include kidknap and torture.</p> Please say it does.</p> I ******* hate smackheads.</p>
I think it's a great idea. We should also give bank robbers bags of cash - maybe £60k a year or something.
Theres a surplus of orphaned girls in China it would keep the paedophiles from kidnapping and molesting our own children.
