In light of the recent murders in Suffolk, isn't there now a case for providing vulnerable addicts with free drugs until they can be treated?

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The five murdered women were working as prostitutes. If newspaper reports are accurate, they were all heroin/crack cocaine users. By working to fund their habits they are at risk daily. Also, addicts who repeatedly shoplift and end up in prison must cost more to keep in prison than to treat with controlled doses of drugs in the community.

I think these people are beyond the 'Just Say No' campaigns reach. As addicts, they will always put themselves (and others, in many cases) at risk to get the funds to buy drugs.

Any thoughts?

If I was a prostitute I'd want to be out of my head while giving favours to people I wouldn't normally go nera with a bargepole too - chicken or egg?

i agree monkey

good point

drug addiction pervades all strata of society..hence places like Priory etc..its not just prostitutes, homeless..it needs to be destigmatised and dealt with practically for all as it concerns more than addict themselves..
if addict can obtain their chosen addiction without breaking law it frees up police, social service, prisons, hospitals etc for other more important stuff than dealing w/ hypocrasy of this legal/non legal drug
I love it when police cheifs call for it to be legalised..people like FIL (law abiding chap that he is) just cant get their heads around it, bless..and showed me one day something he found out walking dog in their sleepy village green..it was crack pipe!!
if your friends, your kids, your whoever are going to take drugs, they will I'm afraid, would you rather the drugs, apparatus wouldn't kill them? and if they developed a taste for them didn't need to resort to life of prostitution to pay inflated prices to some scumbag rip off dealer?

oh absolutely, but casual or experiemental or even in the case of Kate Moss et al, social drug taking differs from the chronic crack addictions that seem to pervade this industry. And I'm guessing there'll be many studies which show that hard drugs (crack and heroin - drugs that get you 'out' of it) and prostitution are inextricably linked. It just seems obvious.

Prostitution is one of the lowest status jobs there is and must be up there as one of the most stressful jobs as a consequence.

It carries a huge stigma too, even if you get out of it.

I think it's the thin end of the wedge. I can see the logic in it, but it isn't fair on all those law abiding people who tow the line etc. What do they get given for free?
Seems to me it's better to break a few laws and be on the edge of society then you get given lots of stuff paid for by all those who are trying their best to be good citizens something not quite right there.

Oh I don't agree. If we can't care for the most needy, our most abject citizens, it doesn't bode well for the rest of us.

And these people aren't getting anything for 'free'. They are hardly going to be in any way privileged, just less desperate.

Oh I don't agree. If we can't care for the most needy, our most abject citizens, it doesn't bode well for the rest of us.

And these people aren't getting anything for 'free'. They are hardly going to be in any way privileged, just less desperate.

kittyschristmascrackers, you have something that is 'free'; a life without addiction. Cherish it because it is much more preferable than life as an addict 'free' drugs or not.

But Winnie it has been my choice to refuse those drugs offered to me hasn't it?

there is a huge case imo for legalising both prostitution and drugs.

Class A drugs are in the main LESS bad for you than alcohol and cigarettes. All of the additional awfulness is entirely due to their illegality.

Legalising prostitution is a no brainer as far as I am concerned. It is always going to exist and the only way that sex workers can access basic rights to safety and health is via legalisation.

Surely drug abuse is not just a British problem; it's an international one and with the ease of travel these days there is no way we could possibly deal effectively with this problem without working with the governments of other countries, esp. the most vulnerable ones like in South America. We are willing to send troops to Iraq - why not Brazil or Columbia?

Just wanted to add, if it weren't obvious already, that I am pathetically unaware of government policy on this kind of thing.

monkeytrousers - i think the link w/ sex workers and drugs is a chicken and egg thing..low self esteem - drugs - prostitution /pimping to pay for them and vicious circle begins.. if dealers and inflated cost of often 'cut' drugs (soap powder, manitol, and much worse) were taken out of equation the need to prostitute to gain money would lessen surely and would break the back of the problem..if someone wants to drink themselves to death at least its not with moonshine unless they so choose..

what shocks me in regard to government is that they allow so many dealers to make so much money and w/ present system have no chance of taxing them..makes it an attractive if risky job for some..

i've known city bankers and their ilk w/ vicious coke and heroin habits..its everywhere

i dont think there is a government policy as such for drugs and no impoteus for them to change, its not exactly a vote winner to say legalise it; look what happened to Brian Paddock when he had a turning a blind eye to cannabis cafes in lambeth policy.. GAY POLICE CHEIF HEADLINES bye bye Brian..imagine how the Sun (gotcha / wot won it)and others would put across this policy across on their front pages..
short term thinking and snappy sound bites is the best we can expect from this / any shower in power, er i mean right honourable members elected to represent us the good ol british public..

I thought that vulnerable addicts got free 'drugs' in the form of a drug substitute called Methodone!!!! and yet they still buy drugs to 'top' up the 'meth'

Straying away from the OP but answering those of you sympathetic to the plight of these 'junkies'

At the weekend our business was broken into, probably by junkie's, this is the third time this has happened, the first time it was deffo a junkie cos he was caught and prosecuted. Last year was just before Christmas as well. Even though we have increased security they have broken in again

Anyway- 'probably' a smack head has broken in to our premises and stolen all our stock. We are left in a position of having no stock to sell, the insurance could take months to come through. In the meantime what do we do? What can we sell? Nothing. How do we pay our mortgage this month? What do I do this week's shopping with? I wonder if there's government funding to help us? Of course not.

Anyway some druggie has 'taken' what he wanted to sort his Christmas out and left us well and truly up 'shit creek' without a paddle.

So yes, give them drugs, but an unlimited supply so that they can .......

Pixie, surely that's the point of the legalisation argument- so that people like yourselves aren't having to suffer awful crimes committed bya ddicts trying to get their drug money?

Kitty, I know its not the case for all of them, but the 'your choice'- yes, me too, however look at the histories of lots of these poelpe and there are some rpetty awful tales to be told which account for severe lack of judgement or just a desire to hide from the world any way they can. Now, we all now abuse victims that didn't turn to drugs etc but it IS a contributory factor, just as it is in homelessness.

pixiefish am sorry to hear of your troubles .. but in the case of this thread i but dont think you are reading the posts as this is exactly the kind of 'junkie' crime that would probably be eliminated if safe clean drugs were available to those who wished them..

safe clean drugs are available to them and free on the NHS.it's called Methodone

So based on this logic should you give vunerable people addicted to any substance a free fix? What about those addicted to cigarettes and alcohol?
I think it's dangerous. I mean if you have to pay through the nose to get a kick from alcohol and then you find out that if you want heroin then you get it forfree what would you do? Carry on paying for alcohol or go and get free heroin. It's a disatster waiting to happen and will cause alot more people to become addicted to hard drugs.

?short term thinking and snappy sound bites is the best we can expect from this / any shower in power, er i mean right honourable members elected to represent us the good ol british public..?

Yeah, that?s because people won?t vote for long term strategies. Chicken and egg again.

Pixiefish, I think methadone only stops the symptoms of withdrawal. It doesn?t give you the high, which is why people take it.

And legislating would mean they didn?t have to steal to feed their habit. Maybe even taxes would fall!

Addicts on alcohol or heroin, many self destruct Kitty. These are desperate people, many with mental health issues. It is in the public and national interest to manage the situation better than it is being managed at the moment for their sakes and the publics.

Someone on the news recently said that drugs are like getting a hug. If you give them free drugs like methedone to help them overcome their addiction, they need to know that there will be someone reliable and trustworthy at the end of the torture to 'hug' them and look after them in the long term.

pixiefish ..what would you give your burgulars assuming they are junkies and assuming the junk they are addicted to is crack cocaine? there is no subsitute for this drug.

methodone is a maintenance programme provided for HEROIN addicts..and it is actually more addictive than heroin itself..so once addict has given up heroin, they then have to give up methadone too which has worse withdrawl symptoms...
i never mentioned giving people drugs for free, just access to CLEAN SAFE drugs..if you are over 18 and thats what you choose to do..hey, it could even be taxable..the inflated prices are due to the supply chain involved and the characters involved not the price of the actual drug..dont think afgan poppy farmers are 'rolling in it'

I just dont think the system we have now works at all; we are told which poisons we can use, and we are allowed unlimited access to fags and alcohol and lung cancer and liver disease and all the related evils can never be thought of as good things

the war on drugs will never be won by the cops, and hey, thats their words - people take drugs because they like the high..let them get on with it, its not a career choice i'd recommmend but why not let them do it safely?
priced reasonably, sold safely whats the problem? pros - cuts down on prison cells, police time, petty and not so petty crime and scum bag dealers are out of a job; its got to be a win win situation people....

a drug addict is a great advert to your kids of why NOT TO do it, whats so scary about being open, upfront about it..if people were really repulsed by it all then Kate Moss would be out of a job, just cause she carries her coke around in faberge egg she is still a junkie people...

monkeytrousers - dont think the electrate are offered any long term solutions; sadly its not in politicans interest to think longer than 4 years ahead

suzycreamcheese- at the moment I'd give them enough free drugs to make sure they overdosed. What they have done is ruining my life at the moment. I don't know how we will pay the mortgage this month or even how we will eat past the next 2 or 3 weeks. We work hard and make many many sacrifices to run our business. It's not a big successful business and at the moment, like a lot of businesses times are hard. To then lose all our stock and to lose it in the week before Christmas could well finish us off financially.

If we lose the business we will lose our home as we couldn't afford the mortgage on a salary plus the house is in dire need of repairs so even if we managed the mortgage we couldn't do the repairs.

Up until a month ago my dh used to sleep at work to protect his stock but we had no family life and no marriage. So we upped the security and they still got in.

So, no, I have no sympathy at all for them. Drug abuse is generally self inflicted. I heard the warnings when I was 16 about how one dose and you were an addict. I never took drugs and I have an addictive personality. I found it difficult to give up smoking for years and years, I used to drink too much. Anything I do i generally become addicted to.

Why not give free medication to law abiding citizens who need them instead.