Give addicts free heroin or they'll die in the gutter; Police chief speaks out.

Byline: David Powell

NORTH Wales chief constable Richard Brunstrom yesterday called for free heroin to be handed to hundreds of the region's hard core drug addicts. The outspoken police chief said he would willingly pilot any Government project to stem the ``tidal wave'' of crime from Wales's 10,000 problem addicts.

He also called for an imaginative approach to tackling the scourge of drugs and added: ``We cannot execute drug traders.''

Addressing yesterday's Welsh Local Government Association conference in Llandudno, Mr Brunstrom called for the prescribing of heroin to certain users under strict conditions.

He said later: ``If the Government proceeded with giving people hopelessly addicted to heroin good heroin in sterile conditions, I would pilot it. We are talking about a handful of people, hundreds at most. Otherwise they are doomed to die in prison or the gutter.''

Speaking in a slot called ``Crime: The Crack in Our Communities'', Mr Brunstrom said he represented all four chief constables in Wales. He urged the National Assembly to place far greater emphasis on treating offenders.

``The health consequences of illegal drugs are relatively small,'' he said. ``But the consequences to society are enormous and appalling. We have no right to ask for more money until we sort out our priorities.

``The police will do our bit. But we will not be successful to help fix the damage caused to society by drugs on our own. Our plea is for effective treatment.''

North Wales Police Authority and North Wales Probation Service have paid pounds 210,000 over 18 months for six community psychiatric nurses to help addicts in the region's police stations.

But he said it was ``madness'' that there was compulsory detoxification for inmates in prisons but not on release.

Mr Brunstrom urged Welsh Local Government Association members to keep the drugs scourge in perspective.

``More people die in Wales from abuse of butane, which is freely available across the counter from ironmongers, than from abuse of hard drugs,'' he said.

North Wales Police has a list of 71 serious drug offenders who have been arrested and charged six times or more for causing a crime in the last 12 months.

After his speech, Mr Brunstrom called for innovative ways to solve the drugs problem.

He said ministers put too much emphasis on imprisoning drug addicts rather than treating them.

He said the Assembly had ``a duty and a right'' to take the lead.

Mr Brunstrom sparked a storm last year after he advocated the setting up of a Royal Commission to look at the possibility of legalising all drugs.

He said the overall international drugs trade was worth pounds 275bn a year, and that the amount spent on illegal drugs in the UK equalled the police's annual budget of pounds 8bn.

CAPTION(S):

INNOVATION: Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom.