Let's get drugs

HEROIN is one of the greatest threats to society, so it is gratifying to report two different campaigns against the drug and its dealers.

One of those dealers, Carl Anson, is beginning his six-and-a-half year prison sentence. He was responsible for bringing a kilogram of heroin to York, worth £180,000.

That is a lot of misery. It represents 10,000 fixes of a killer drug, a drug that erodes potential, ambition and fulfilment and turns good people into criminals.

The police team who brought Anson to justice deserve our thanks today. Their work has taken Anson off our streets, which has saved some York residents from being exposed to heroin

It has also sent out a message to those who make their money dealing in death: you will be caught and punished.

Heroin is killing our young people. Out of more than 7,200 people who died of drug overdoses in Europe, nearly 40 per cent were from Britain.

Today DrugScope launched a campaign to reduce the number of people injecting drugs. It has the backing of Pauline Holcroft, the mother who courageously released photographs of her daughter Rachel's body after she died of a heroin overdose.

Both the jailing of Anson and the DrugScope initiative show the need for a more sophisticated approach to drugs. The vital war against heroin is being denied the resources it needs because the police must also pursue the users of cannabis and ecstasy.

Our attitude to the use of such 'soft', non-addictive drugs is changing. A survey by a Sunday newspaper found that 2.4 million people regularly use ecstasy, and five million regularly use cannabis. Most bought their drugs from a friend, turning millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens into "drug dealers".

Unless we embark on a mature debate on drugs, acknowledging for example that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol, then a generation is going to hold our law in contempt. And more importantly, we will continue to lose the war against the hard drugs that destroy so many lives.

Updated: 11:35 Tuesday, April 23, 2002