Heroin on the NHS will not help the biggest victims - the addicts' families

The Telegraph ^ | 9/15/2009 | Ed West

[markomalley]

While the Government threatens to cut child benefit for the middle class in order to reduce the country’s banana republic-level of national debt, the Independent is calling for heroin to be made available on the NHS, along with boob jobs, Viagra, non-medical abortions and all the other things William Beveridge had exactly in mind when he set it up.

This “clamour” for free heroin, at the cost of £15,000-per-(smack)-head, came about after a group led by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse successfully reduced the amount that addicts stole over a certain period.

(snip)

But for whose benefit is this? The debate about drugs policy has traditionally been discussed in terms of the harm to the addict vs the harm to society. Drug addiction physically damages the users in a number of ways, but that harm is certainly increased by prohibition, which forces the addict to buy unregulated street heroin; drug addiction also harms society because addicts are responsible for the overwhelming majority of theft in this country. This scheme seems to solve both problems.

Except the one group never consulted or considered: the family and friends of the addict, who are the biggest victims of this non-victimless crime. While no doubt they do not want their loved ones exposed to the dangers of scoring and all that entails, neither would they want the Government to act as enabler, and this programme seems to make no attempt to get addicts off drugs, which at least prison aspires to (in theory), but only to minimise the irritation it causes to those not directly connected to the addict. That seems like not only a short-term policy akin to Danegeld for junkies, but also a selfish one.

[markomalley]

I guess this is an extension of the Bamster's idea of not wasting money on expensive treatments...just give Grandma pain pills instead.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Where are they getting that price? Do they propose to have folks buying it off the street? If the market were free, or if produced by a reputable lab under a limited legalization umbrella, heroin would be almost as dirt-cheap as morphine.

Also it’s funny there’s no mention of the usage of less-intoxicating substances to maintain addicts, inadvertent or otherwise. If that is done properly, there should be little or no nuisance to neighbor or family.

[TruthBeforeAll]

Heroin on the NHS will not help the biggest victims - the addicts' families

AMEN!!! The devastation on the families of chemically dependent people is staggering. It doesn't matter whether it's alcohol or drugs. The stress on spouses and children from not knowing which daddy, mommy, husband or wife will show up and why they are acting the way they are can never be underestimated.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’m sure they’re thinking, ‘Give the heroin addicts an endless supply of free heroin and pretty soon...no more addicts!’ *Rolleyes*

Make that, ‘Give an endless supply of heroin to anyone that wants it and pretty soon you have...an endless supply of heroin addicts.’

My bad. I was trying to make logical sense of this. ;)

[Shooter 2.5]

Maybe they’re planning on giving them all the heroin they crave, like lethal doses. You know, no more addicts.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I think they’d rather increase the numbers of more moderate addicts living on our taxpayer dollars while they get grants to study why giving them free drugs didn’t work!

An endless cycle of stupidity, IMHO.