Should heroin be given on the NHS?

[Sam Slater]

A straight forward answer, fair play.

I don't agree though. What crimes/accidents would alcohol cause if there were far less users like heroin? I guess we'll never have a proper comparison to know.

I'd guess that less than 1% of regular drinkers get arrested for public order offences. An old friend who's been a doorman for years once told me that he has to kick out 3 people out of every 100 admitted into a club -that sell alcohol- during the night. He also has worked at a -notorious for aggro- nightclub in Sheffield that only sells soft drinks because it's opening hours were 12midnight-8/10am. The people stabbed/shot/glassed/kicked out were about 10 times the amount compared to the regular 'licenced' club. His view was that since you're sober, you're more aware of the group of lads eying up your girl, or the sarcastic comments & piss taking etc. He also said that his job was harder & more dangerous because anyone with a grudge was more likely to ambush/plan an attack on the security much more effectively if they're sober. Drunks are easy to disarm/man-handle out of the premises. So you could say that 'sober late night socialising' is more dangerous than 'drunk late night socialising'. Do we ban soberness? This is only 1 doorman working in 1 part of the country over 15 years, so though not accurate, it's a decent estimate.

Like it or not, alcohol is part of British culture, and 95% of drinkers do not cause hassle or have accidents. It only seems a problem because the culture is so widespread, and involves youths from 15-90! Now if you ban alcohol there would be total uproar! So the only thing would be to legalise both substances which would seem fair. My problem with this would be people freely taking heroin while drunk. Is this a sensible state of affairs?