|
Newsbrief:
British
Drug
Policy
Think
Tank
Says
Government
Abandoned
Planned
Heroin
Maintenance
Expansion
9/24/04
In 2002, British Home
Secretary David Blunkett announced that the number of licenses granted
to doctors
to prescribe heroin should be increased from fewer than 50 to more than
1,500,
to remove the supply of the drug from the black market. But
two years later, the National Treatment
Agency, the government body responsible for dealing with addiction, has
reported that instead of increasing 30-fold as Blunkett suggested, the
number
of doctors with heroin maintenance prescribing licenses has only
doubled, to
123.
"These figures are
disappointing," Natasha Vromen, a spokesperson for the drug policy
think
tank Drugscope (http://www.drugscope.org.uk)
told the British newspaper the
Observer. "There were great hopes
that the government and doctors were developing a drugs policy where
the health
aspects were brought to the fore. Unfortunately,
it is now dominated by the
crime agenda."
Ironically, Blunkett
initially called for a massive expansion of heroin prescribing after a
Home
Affairs Select Committee found that Britain's 250,000 heroin addicts were fueling crime
at a rate
of $11 billion a year. The committee
also called for safe injection sites for drug users, but that idea has
faded as
well in the face of strong local opposition (https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/238/homeaffairs.shtml).
According to Drugscope's
Vroman, a mass murdering physician helped derail the plan to expand the
number
of doctors prescribing maintenance heroin. Dr.
Harold Shipman was convicted in 2000 of
killing 215 patients using heroin, or diamorphine, as it is known in
British
medical parlance. While Shipman's trial
was four years ago, inquiries into the case have continued. In a report issued just two months ago, Dame
Janet Smith, who is leading the inquiry, called for stricter controls
on heroin
to avoid the sort of stockpiling that allowed Shipman to amass his
killer
supply.
-- END --
|
Issue #355, 9/24/04
Editorial: The Moral Choice is Clear |
With New Sentencing Legislation Pending in Congress, Church Leaders Urge an End to Mandatory Minimums |
Patients, Doctors, Supporters Head to Washington to Demand Rescheduling of Marijuana as a Medicine |
For Second Year, John W. Perry Fund Helps Students with Drug Convictions Afford College |
DRCNet Interview: Michael Badnarik, Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate |
DRCNet Book Review: "Patients in The Crossfire: Casualties in The War On Medical Marijuana," by Americans For Safe Access |
Action Alert: Still Time to Contact Judiciary Committee Members About HEA Drug Provision |
Newsbrief: Schwarzenegger Signs Syringe Access Bill, Vetoes NEP Bill |
Newsbrief: Schwarzenegger Vetoes Bill Barring High School Drug Testing |
Newsbrief: New Jersey Needle Exchange Bill on Fast Track, Passes First Hurdle |
Newsbrief: Former Child Actor Macauley Culkin Busted for Drugs in All-Too-Typical Cave-In to Police Search Request |
Newsbrief: Montel Williams Show Brings Medical Marijuana Issue to the Masses |
Newsbrief: Bush Warns of Canada Drug Threat, Whistles Past Afghan Opium Fields |
Newsbrief: Guatemala Seeks More Anti-Drug Money from United States |
Newsbrief: Decades of Colombian Drug War Brings... New, More Efficient Drug Organizations |
Newsbrief: Narc Hates Free Publicity |
Newsbrief: This Week's Corrupt Cops Story |
Newsbrief: British Drug Policy Think Tank Says Government Abandoned Planned Heroin Maintenance Expansion |
This Week in History |
The Reformer's Calendar
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
Chronicle archives
|
PERMISSION to reprint or
redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby
granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and,
where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your
publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks
payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for
materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we
request notification for our records, including physical copies where
material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202)
293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank
you.
Articles of a purely
educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet
Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
|
