Critics fear that free ‘shooting galleries’ heroin plan will mean increase in addiction
ADDICTS are to be given free heroin as the Home Office awards the UK’s first “shooting gallery” licences.
The controversial move is being led by the police and crime commissioner and doctors in Cleveland. It will use medical grade heroin in a last-ditch attempt to wean “hardcore” addicts off the class A drug.
Under the Home Office licence approved this month, the addicts will inject themselves up to three times a day supervised by health staff at a centre open seven days a week. Without the licence, anyone caught possessing heroin can be jailed for up to seven years.
The autumn launch in Cleveland will be followed by the introduction of a “heroin assisted treatment” (HAT) centre later this year for Glasgow’s 400 registered addicts.
The council and NHS in Glasgow have a provisional licence approval and have already recruited staff and started converting a building in the east end.
West Midlands, Durham and Avon and Somerset police and crime commissioners could follow suit if the projects are successful.
Supporters say it could help addicts for whom all other treatments, including methadone, have failed by giving them access to health and other specialist staff to get them off drugs.
The authorities in Cleveland claim the scheme – estimated to cost £12,000 a year per addict – could ultimately save money.
It is estimated that each heroin addict costs the taxpayer £20,000 a year through crime and the expense to the NHS of treating their health problems.
Critics, however, say the scheme could attract addicts and leave them still dependent on heroin, undermining other services trying to get them off drugs. Barry Coppinger, the Cleveland police and crime commissioner, said the 15 selected addicts were the “most prolific offenders” in Middlesbrough.
“It’s clear that for this hardcore of substance addicts the current strategies are not working and if we don’t try something new, the cycle of offending and the enormous costs to society will simply continue and in all likelihood increase,” he said.
Glasgow aims to start with 40 to 50 of the city’s addicts, most of whom inject their drugs in public.
The Scottish Government and Glasgow are also lobbying the Home Office to permit “heroin consumption rooms”. These are designed to get addicts who inject in public off the streets but have been blocked as too controversial.
The Home Office said: “Heroin Assisted Treatment is an option open to local areas under the existing legal framework, and we support areas that pursue this approach where relevant licences are obtained.”
Professor Sir John Strang, of King’s College, who has advised the Government on addiction, said evidence showed they should be reserved for “people for whom ordinary treatment has persistently failed to work”.