Tim is right. The plan to increase the level of heroin prescriptions for junkies is a good one, partially reversing the disastrous failure of all British drugs policy between 1971-2002 (not to mention 2004-present).

What the hell drove the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 in the first place? Before it was introduced, we didn’t have a serious drugs problem, and certainly not a serious drug-related crime [*] problem. It then became a major factor (alongside many others) in ensuring that we did.

This is an example of a wider phenomenon: halfwitted government attempts to tackle mostly-imaginary (at least in extent) problems can have the effect of creating conditions where the original problem becomes a real and significant one. I wonder if anyone can come up with another recent instance of this?

[*] In case anyone sarcastic wants to say ‘well, of course there wasn’t any crime if it wasn’t illegal’, this means drug gangsters and drug muggers.