§ 38. Mr. Hickmetasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has made any assessment of how much it costs per day for an average heroin addict to finance his addiction; what estimate he has of the number of such addicts, whether registered or not; and what estimate he has made of the effects of drug addiction upon the incidence of crimes of dishonesty and violence.
§ Mr. MellorThe cost of heroin to an addict will vary with the circumstances in each case, but some recent research in the Wirral found that of a sample of heroin users referred in 1984–85 to a particular detoxification unit, the majority were at the time of referral using amounts of heroin daily worth £20-£35. Information on the number of drug addicts notified by medical practitioners to the chief medical officer at the home Office in 1984 is given in Home Office statistical bulletin 23/85. Some research carried out in two urban areas in England in 1981 suggested that the number of notified addicts was about one fifth the number of opioid addicts in the local population at that time; it is likely, however, that the number of opioid misusers varies greatly according to locality and over time. Home Office statistical bulletin 19/85 gave the results of a study of the convictions for "standard list" offences of persons first notified to the Home Office as narcotic drug addicts in England and Wales in 1979–81. It was estimated that no more than 4 per cent. of notifiable offences recorded by the police were likely to have been committed by regular opioid users.