Police to hand out drugs to tackle drug-related crime

Police will hand out drugs to heroin addicts in an attempt to prevent drug-related crime.

Durham Constabulary will be the first UK police force to try such an initiative. It will put money aside from its budget to source the heroin, which it will then give out, free, to heroin addicts. It is hoped that the free drugs will stop addicts committing crimes to fund their habits, keeping money out of the pockets of drug dealers.

There is also a controversial scheme planned to provide a supervised ‘shooting gallery’ for addicts, where they can inject themselves with drugs twice a day. This scheme has been criticised, with researchers concerned that addicts will still be dependent on the drugs they use.

Chief Constable, Mike Barton, said the UK needed to stop having a ‘moral panic’ about the shooting gallery plan. He stressed that it is the job of the police to prevent crime, adding that drug addiction was a medical, not a criminal, problem. Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Mr Barton said, “We need to get over our moral panic about giving people heroin as part of a treatment plan. Police were set up to prevent crime, not to arrest people. Our primary concern is to prevent crime. If we’ve got people who are addicted to Class A drugs committing crime, it makes good sense to get that person off drugs. Addiction is a medical problem, not a criminal justice problem.