Monday 14 September 2009

"The critics" are fucking stupid

I find myself in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with something in the Indy. Still, at least I got there first.

A group of government-appointed drug experts will call for a nationwide network of "shooting galleries" to provide injectable heroin for hardened drug addicts across the country.


Well, it's near enough to what I suggested.

Critics say giving addicts the drugs they were previously scoring on the street is not "treatment", and the cost at £15,000 a year per head cannot be justified when NHS patients are being denied the latest cancer drugs. But addiction experts say this is about "harm reduction", not cure.


Indeed. It's going to save the country a lot fucking more than £15,000 per addict in reduced crime, less police time wasted, lower insurance payments, etc. In fact, it will probably save the NHS more than £15,000 per addict in reduced medical costs for addicts and their victims.

So, will the 646 grasp the nettle and do something useful for a change? Sadly, I fucking doubt it. But maybe I'm just unduly cynical:

Long-term heroin users are among the hardest addicts to treat and impose huge costs on the medical and penal systems. Ten per cent of drug addicts commit three-quarters of all acquisitive crime in the UK, official figures show. The existing government drugs strategy includes a commitment to roll out the clinics, subject to the findings of the trial programme.


Who knows, gentle reader? Perhaps, just this once, the government will do something right.

Postscript: a summary of European drugs liberalisation approaches. Notice which one contains a monumental fuck up.

*BRITAIN

Doctors have been allowed to prescribe heroin since the 1920s but very few do so. Most prefer to prescribe methadone, a heroin substitute, which is taken orally once a day. Its effects are longer-lasting but duller. Many addicts continue to buy heroin. There are currently three "shooting galleries" operating across the country which may now be extended.

*SWITZERLAND

Throughout the mid-1990s the Swiss were at the forefront of trialling prescription heroin schemes and the country has seen a major reduction in crime and better rehabilitation success rates. For years the main "shooting gallery" was in Zurich but last year Swiss voters approved a nationwide rollout of prescription heroin in a referendum.

*PORTUGAL

Portugal has the most liberal drugs policy in Europe. In 2001, it took the radical step of abolishing criminal penalties for drugs. Anyone caught with drugs was referred through the civil, rather than criminal, courts and either fined or put into treatment. Critics predicted that narcotics use would spiral out of control but addiction rates fell.

6 comments:

Fidel Cuntstruck said...

Damn, I was starting to get interested there. My concept of a "shooting gallery" was rather different though - instead of being offered a fix in controlled surroundings - I was thinking more along the lines of a "last cigarette"

Oswald Bastable said...

Give the fucker all the smack they want.

The problem goes away real quick...

Ryan said...

>Who knows, gentle reader? Perhaps, just this once, the government will do something right.

Did somebody spike your cornflakes this morning Obo?

Methadone is as additive as heroin, with equally nasty side effects. It also kills about 400 idiots a year (half as many as scag). The only reason it is prescribed is puritanism, there's no buzz in it.

And only the NHS could arrive at a figure of 15,000 per year for medical heroin and a portacabin. Security might be a justifiable reason though I guess. The stuff would be cheap as aspirin if it wasn't for the illegality.

Roue le Jour said...

"Critics" being people on a nice little earner dealing with smackheads, rather than people with some idea of what the fuck they're talking about.

You can replace "smackheads" with any other of the client classes, e.g. "young offenders" or "single mothers", and it's still true.

SteveShark said...

Methadone is as additive as heroin, with equally nasty side effects. It also kills about 400 idiots a year (half as many as scag).

I fail to see your point here.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Agreed, but as Ryan says, how on earth do they calculate it will cost £15,000 per addict per annum? I'm surprised you fell for that!

Dispensing heroin at 'shooting galleries' can't be much more expensive than e.g. running a pub. Seeing as the raw material cost of a shot of heroin is about the same as the raw material cost of a pint of lager, one shot a day at @ £3 would be about £1,000 per addict per year.

Any sensible system would charge them £3 per shot (or whatever) so the net cost would f*** all divided by six.

@ Ryan, good point, in relative terms (legal) methadone is about three times as likely to cause death than (illegal) heroin. Plus it doesn't give you the proper buzz.