True cost of drug addicts revealed

My Account
Logout

Create an Evening Standard Account

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Welcome! Sign in here

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Forgot your password ?

Registration

* indicates fields that are mandatory

Email *

Password *

Confirm Password *

First name *

Surname *

Postcode *

Country *

Mobile phone number

Username *

Gender *

Year of birth *

When you sign up...

You will have access to all our online competitions, discounted offers and can post comments on our site.

You will also receive The Weekender newsletter sent every Thursday - it’s full of fantastic offers and ideas for the weekend. You can update your email preferences in your account page when you log in.

Other newsletters and emails

Homes & Property Newsletter - Yes I want to receive the weekly email with all the latest news on property in the capital

Occasionally we would also like to send you relevant emails detailing specific offers either from ourselves or carefully selected partners. If you would prefer not to receive these then please tick the appropriate boxes below. We will never pass on your details.

I do not want to receive additional offers and information from the Evening Standard

I do not want to receive additional offers and information sent by Evening Standard on behalf of carefully selected partners

Terms and Conditions

* I have read, understood and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of Evening Standard

Registration

Mail Sent for Registration Confirmation.

A confirmation email has been sent. Please activate your account by clicking on the activation link sent in your mail box.

The study also advised Justice Secretary Jack Straw that drug-free prisons were not a realistic possibility, and raised the prospect of handing out clean needles to prisoners to inject heroin.

Ministers had attempted to keep the report secret for months. Prisons minister David Hanson finally released the data after "considerable interest in the report", which was drawn up by independent auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The authors said: "The creation of drug-free prisons is an expensive option and was not considered to be practical in the current resource climate."

They added that it would be "an option" to give junkies a supervised "retoxification" course near the end of their sentences - in other words, to give them drugs to prevent them overdosing on release.

The report highlighted the failings of mandatory drug tests, which have frequently been hailed by ministers as a success in reducing drug use behind bars.

It said: "Staff and prisoners generally felt that mandatory drug testing should not be used to monitor the behaviour of individuals since it was open to manipulation (with clean urine often being used as a currency), and other problems such as recreational users of cannabis moving to opiate use to avoid detection."

The authors of the report admitted that even the massive £800,000 cost of each addict was likely to be an under-estimate, because they had adopted "the more conservative" figures throughout the exercise.

They calculated the astonishing sum from the additional cost on the NHS as well as other factors such as lost earnings and expenditure on law and order.

More than £730,000 could be saved if an addict was successfully brought into treatment by the age of 21, it added.