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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Hardcore addicts shown to cause 99 per cent of drugs bill
Alan Travis The Guardian
Wednesday 13 Feb 2002 As Home Office figures are released, minister says future policy will focus more on the dangers of heroin and crack cocaine Drug abuse in England and Wales costs society up to 18.8bn pounds a year with hardcore heroin and cocaine addicts responsible for 99% of the bill, according to Home Office research released yesterday. The figure is far higher than previous estimates and includes the costs to victims of crime, of bringing offenders to justice, and of welfare benefits, as well as the bill to the national health service. The research shows that hardcore heroin addicts and other problem drug users each cost the state a minimum of 11,000 pounds a year. The comparable cost brought about by average regular "recreational" users is under 20 pounds a year because they commit little crime and are do not overburden the health service. This comparison excludes the estimated 12bn pounds annual bill for the social costs to the victims of crime. The results were revealed yesterday by the drugs minister, Bob Ainsworth, when he told MPs the target for the official drugs strategy will in future focus more sharply on reducing the harm caused by the most dangerous drugs, such as heroin and crack cocaine. The targets are being revised as part of a "stock-taking review". Mr Ainsworth also told the Commons home affairs select committee inquiry into the drugs laws that treatment worked with regard to tackling hardcore drug addiction. He told MPs that for every pound spent on drug treatment programmes, 3 pounds was saved in criminal justice costs. "We know treatment works. We know we need to focus on class A drugs, treatment and harm minimisation," he said. The unpublished research, by the University of York, cited yesterday, gives the most recent estimate for the scale of class A drug abuse in England and Wales. It estimates that in 2000 there were 281,125 "problem drug users" in England and Wales whose mainly heroin and cocaine habits were no longer under control. The study estimates there are about 1,091,000 class A regular users over the age of 25, and a further 399,000 class A regular users under the age of 25, who mainly use ecstasy. The research puts the economic cost to the health service, criminal justice system and the welfare state, at between 3.7bn pounds to 6.8bn pounds. Adding the "social costs" increases the figure to between 10.9bn pounds and 18.8bn pounds, said the Home Office. The study says that problem drug users account for 99% of the costs. Mr Ainsworth made clear to the MPs yesterday that the government did not back calls for the downgrading of ecstasy from its class A status but acknowledged that while it was a dangerous drug its users got involved in crime to feed their habit far less often than heroin and crack cocaine users. The MPs' committee, chaired by Chris Mullin, Labour MP for Sunderland South, is to publish its report into the future of the drugs laws in April. It was warned by ministers yesterday not to embrace policies backing legalisation of any illicit drug; they claimed such a move would encourage consumption. The questioning adopted by MPs in their final evidence session of the inquiry indicated they were considering issues such as creating a lesser offence of "social dealing", which would mean teenagers dealing among friends without profit would not face the same penalties as traffickers. The creation of "safe" injecting rooms for heroin addicts is also probably a consideration. The committee appears certain to endorse the home secretary's proposal to reclassify cannabis from class B to class C, so that police lose the power to arrest and prosecute for possession alone.
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