Police want heroin prescribed

A radical scheme to prescribe and administer heroin to addicts in strictly controlled "shooting galleries" could be put to the test as early as next year to break the cycle of drug-induced crime.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) will announce a fundamental shift in policy next month and propose a trial period for the project. Acpo members argue that the move would allow law enforcement agencies to focus on finding the prime movers behind the multibillion-pound criminal industry rather than individual addicts.

Research has found that a serious heroin user needs £100 a day to finance the habit and as much as 70 per cent of property crime could be committed to fund addiction. The test period for the scheme, if successful, could lead to the mass prescription of the class-A drug on the NHS for the estimated 50,000 addicts in Britain.

The scheme, which would not require a change in the law, would be operated from specialist units in police stations, GP surgeries and hospitals, and has been approved in principle by Sir David Phillips, the Acpo president. A source close to Sir David said of the proposed move: "We need to move towards the managed stabilisation of addicts. This is common sense to most people: the alternatives, such as prison, are no longer realistic."

The proposal stems from research in 1999 by Cleveland Police. The findings of that inquiry, led by Chief Constable Barry Shaw, advocated a fresh approach to the war on drugs.