Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Victims of a failing war on drugs

As the Suffolk Stranger was being sentenced, the Home Office slipped out this written answer on the street price of heroin. It’s almost halved from £74 a gram to £40 a gram. The symmetry was chilling: all the murdered women were addicts. As I write in the News of the World today the government is losing its “war on drugs” (price falls reflect softening of availability constraints) – and in Suffolk we had a glimpse of the human cost.

 
UK Average Drug Prices 1997-2007
£
As at December:
Cocaine (per gram)
Heroin (per gram)
1997
71
74
1998
77
74
1999
75
65
2000
65
70
2001
60
63
2002
56
61
2003
55
62
2004
51
55
2005
49
54
2006
49
50-55
2007
45
40-50
 

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