Leading article: An injection of reality

No one, in this country or anywhere else in Europe, can be under any illusion about the harm inflicted on our societies by hard drugs. The effects are all too visible on the streets and estates of our major cities. And with supplies as plentiful as they have ever been, and the street price correspondingly low, it is not a problem that is going away. The debate, in so far as there is one, centres on what to do about it.

For years, the discussion in Britain has swung between advocates of more and less liberal policies. The gauge of success should surely be how far new addiction can be discouraged and whether the number of drug-related deaths and crimes is being reduced. By any or all these standards, Britain's record is a disgrace.

We record more deaths from illegal drug use than any other European country, and have done for each of the past 10 years. An estimated 50 per cent of burglaries are believed to be drug-related, and possibly many more. The total cost of damage caused by drug addicts is put at more than £21bn a year. Although treatment is increasingly preferred to a prison sentence for those who have committed crimes to fund their habit, we have barely begun to tackle the problem of drug use in our prisons. Worse, this government has seemed reluctant to learn from successful experiments conducted elsewhere.

Ten days ago, the Rowntree Foundation published a report assessing the success of drug-consumption rooms in providing a more hygienic environment for drug users, reducing overdoses and encouraging addicts to seek help. The report recommended pilot projects in Britain, even though the Government, terrified of bad headlines in the reactionary press, has ruled out similar proposals in the past.

Now, a widely respected medical journal, The Lancet, has published a study based on Switzerland, a country with relatively liberal policies on drugs. This found that prescribing methadone or other heroin-substitutes to addicts led to a decline in the number of new heroin users in Zurich, and sharply reduced the number of heroin-related deaths. It found the "medicalisation" of heroin dependence changed addiction from a rebellious act to an illness that requires treatment. The logical conclusion is that a more liberal approach, complementing needle-exchange programmes already in operation, could have a positive effect in Britain.

The Government's reluctance to learn from experience elsewhere, apparently for fear of public reaction, does not bode well. Yet the effect of the changes in our licensing laws shows that liberalisation can have a positive effect. With the licensing laws, the Government stuck to its guns. It is high time it extended the courage of its convictions to drugs policy as well.

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