Janey Godley: Cutting benefits for drug addicts… is this government on crack?

Published on Sunday 1 February 2009 19:08

JAMES Purnell, the UK Government's Work and Pensions Secretary, has laid out plans to stop benefits being paid to crack and heroin addicts unless they agree to try to break their habit.

He says it is unacceptable for taxpayers' money to be effectively handed straight to drug dealers across Britain. Our SNP government has apparently told him where to shove his big idea and have refused to reveal the data concerning addicts.

And so a big legal and constitutional fight begins.

The SNP claim that stopping addicts' benefits will only escalate crimes committed by drug users, which is almost right but partly wrong. There isn't a drug addict in Scotland who could maintain their habit solely on benefits; I know single mothers who can barely feed their kids on the cash they receive.

How will this affect the children of addicts? Will they have to suffer as well?

It is time for the government to start thinking about schemes where addicts are given pharmaceutical heroin through a doctor's reduction programme.

We all know the elephant is in the room. Methadone doesn't work, though someone somewhere is making shedloads of cash churning out the heroin substitute to supply UK addicts. That is one industry that won't be affected by the recession; you can bet your boots on that.

Heroin reduction programmes are successful in other countries and are already on trials in some UK cities. They reduce crime and have a good success rate in getting addicts clean.

They have been championed by health workers, police and some politicians, but they still get bad press and knee-jerk reactions from the mealy-mouthed Right, who throw their hands up in horror at the mere thought of giving heroin to addicts.

Yet it is acceptable to have drug users hooked on government-supplied methadone for countless years.

Will James Purnell start to introduce a new law where cash will be stopped for alcoholics who don't agree to stop drinking? Will obese people be disqualified from the benefit system if they don't try to lose weight? What about disability pensions? Will depressed folk be kicked off benefits if they don't cheer up and get a job?

I can hardly believe this is a Labour government any more; this, to me, is something Thatcher would have come up with after she snatched all the milk and introduced the Poll Tax.

Drug addiction is a disgusting, horrible plague that has gripped Britain for decades and no-one has come up with an answer.

Does James Purnell truly believe that holding back the cash that wouldn't pay for one day's supply of heroin will encourage addicts to stop taking drugs?

Not only is he nave, he is deadly dangerous and needs a reality check.

Brown gurns in Obama's trail

I HATE Barack Obama.

How dare he get up in front of the world's press looking so full of life, with his lovely family standing by as he speaks so many inspiring, multisyllablic words? How dare the man show up our Prime Minister? I mean, how can Gordon Brown possibly compete with that razzmatazz? Barack makes our Gordon look like a tweedy school monitor, slurring his words and gurning a smile that would make small children scream.

I loved George Bush. His warmongering made Tony Blair look like a peace envoy for the Middle East, while his speeches were a gift to comedians. But Mr Obama is going to be hard to lampoon. We comics will have a hard time making him look daft. Big, showy-off President that he is … All happy and intelligent. I hate that. He'd better hurry up and falter.

Off to give the gulls a piece of my mind

MY ONE-WOMAN comedy show, Domestic Godley, is on a Highland jaunt this weekend and I am excited about seeing the beautiful scenery, though the last time I was in Inverness a big seagull attacked me in the city centre. It ran at me and grabbed the sandwich out my hand. I had paid 5 for that balsamic goat-cheese ensemble.

Those gulls are the gangsters of the wildlife world.

On Friday I am at Pitlochry's Festival Theatre and on Saturday at the Inverness Ironworks venue. So look out, gulls – I am coming back and this time it's personal.

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