LONDON -- An outspoken senior police chief has called for heroin to be sold openly by the government, saying current laws do more harm than good.

A week after the government controversially introduced a softer line on cannabis, the chief constable of North Wales police Richard Brunstrom suggested heroin should be legalised and the government should take responsibility for selling it.

"What would be wrong with making heroin available on the state to people who wanted to abuse their body?," he told the BBC Wales "Dragon's Eye" programme in an interview to be shown later on Thursday.

"The question is actually not 'am I prepared to see the government, the state selling heroin to users on the street corner or through the pharmacy' but 'why would we not want to do that, what is wrong with that?' -- that is the question we should be asking.

"My answer is yes, unequivocally yes, that's what we should be doing because our current policy is causing more harm than good."

It is not the first time that Brunstrom has put forward a controversial view on drugs. In 2001 he said he would be astounded if Britain had the same drug laws in 10 or 20 years time as it has today.

In Thursday's interview, he argued that the current policy on drugs created crime, as suppliers turned to violence to protect their profits.

He said he recognised that heroin was an extremely addictive substance but added it was "not very, very dangerous".

"It's perfectly possible to lead a normal life for a full life span and hold down a job while being addicted to heroin," he said.

His comments come after the government relaxed its laws against cannabis last month to free up police time to tackle dealers involved with more serious drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

Although cannabis remains illegal, the government downgraded it to the same "lower risk" category as tranquilisers and anabolic steroids, meaning possession was not automatically an arrestable offence.

The British Medical Association attacked the reclassification and the opposition Conservative Party described the move as absurd and said it would reverse the decision if elected to government.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040205/325/elahv.html

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