© Castello-Ferbos / Godong / Global Look Press 36
Police plan to fund "shooting galleries" where heroin addicts are given a free supply of the Class A drug in a bid to cut substance-related crime.
Durham Constabulary is the first force in the country to set aside money to fund drugs in the hope that it stops users from stealing to pay for their addiction. The force has asked public health experts to provide an "options paper" that will suggest different ways the scheme could work.
Chief Constable Mike Barton told the
Mail on Sunday that, under the plan, addicts would be able to inject themselves twice a day in supervised shooting galleries, also known as fix rooms.
Addiction is "a medical problem, not a criminal justice problem," Barton says. He believes the police's main priority is to prevent crime, not to help people get over their drug addiction."We need to get over our moral panic about giving people heroin as part of a treatment plan.
"Police were set up to prevent crime. If we've got people who are addicted to Class A drugs committing crime, it makes good sense to get that person off drugs.
"Addiction is a medical problem, not a criminal justice problem," he said.
Comment: UPDATE 3/3/17:
Many more facts around this story are now being learned. What's becoming clearer is not only the scope of the abuse, but the attitudes, ignorance and negligence of those employed by USA Gymnastics who permitted the sickening abuses to go on and on. As the IndyStar reports: