Of course it's no big secret that I am a complete legalizer as far as drugs go. But it is good to see the police chief constables taking such an idea seriously. We know that a high proportion of property crime and crime against person are perpetrated by drug users funding the criminal underworld market to get their next fix. These crimes cost a huge amount both financially and emotionally on the rest of society, and an even bigger amount to incarcerate people who have perpetrated them, and they are still not getting the treatment while inside to prevent the revolving door.

Complete legalization would still, in my opinion, be preferable by far - as only then would people who are addicted be most amenable to getting treatment when it is not also a criminal thing, but this would be a big step and deserves support. Incidentally the poll on the BBC website covering the story is currently running at 52% in favour of the idea, which is way more than I would have expected - though maybe the Daily Mail hasn't told its readers to go vote against yet.

Give addicts heroin, says officer:

Howard Roberts said prescribing heroin to criminals would cut crime

Heroin should be prescribed to drug addicts to curb crime, the deputy chief constable of Nottinghamshire has said at a drugs conference.

UPDATE: Just saw Professor Griffth Edwards on C4 News laying into this idea. And he's not the first I've seen today - one of the charitable bodies working on drugs misuse said a similar thing - that you're just going to stoke up the problem. that the addict will have the system over a barrel - give me more or I'll go back to crime. Dr Edwards says that the only way is to get people off these hard drugs. I agree.

But I say the way to do that is to make it possible and socially acceptable to acknowledge a problem and get treatment for it. And the only way of doing that is in an open and accepting enviroment. And while they do come to realise they have a problem and seek help, they will also be able to get cheap, well regulated and much safer drugs so they're less likely to die before they get help.