News of: Wednesday, June 29 2005,
Alderman Hannah Belliot (health care) has said she is in favour of giving cocaine for free to severe drug addicts.
The free prescription would be for the 'hopeless cases', the drug addicts who are not expected to be able to get off their addiction. They are people who have been addicted for a long time and are often ill, therefore considering them as patients who need medical treatment seems more urgent and effective than considering them as criminals.
At the moment there are already experimental programmes for free provision of heroin throughout the Netherlands, and the government has decided to expand this project.
Belliot estimates some 250 people would qualify for the cocain programme.
