Hazy logic

A MISGUIDED drugs policy harms more than just the users themselves. If more people succumb to addiction then it wrecks their own lives, imposes a greater burden on the stretched courts service and the NHS and puts more of the innocent at risk from drug-related crime. Therefore steep funding cuts to units which tackle the problem risk being the ultimate false economy in the coalition’s cuts.

So why do it? Holding back public cash from schemes to help criminals stuck in addiction, such as West Yorkshire’s Drugs and Offender Management Unit, may go down well with some voters and in the most unforgiving corners of the media, but it does not represent a solution. As anyone who lived in a northern city through the 1980s could explain, ignoring a social problem does not make it go away, it simply entrenches it.

The reality is that cuts to prison, police and Probation Service budgets mean more criminals will be walking the streets rather than being locked up. With drug abuse among offenders so high, and more of them being treated in the community, it is precisely at this time that demand for addiction treatments is likely to increase.

Having fewer police officers and fewer drug workers will inevitably lead to a rise in crime, particularly muggings and burglaries, piling more pressure on a system which is already under pressure. It creates a vicious circle to which Theresa May did not have an answer when she visited Wakefield yesterday.

Front-line drug support workers, who deal with high-risk and sometimes violent addicts every day, may feel the Home Secretary’s pledge to cut duplication and increase collaboration sounds like meaningless jargon designed to smooth over the ugly reality of sweeping budget cuts. The coalition is on the brink of a mistake with far-reaching implications; it desperately needs a moment of clarity.