Lottery cash for heroin scheme

Up TO £500,000 of National Lottery cash is to be spent on a scheme providing drug addicts with heroin.

In the first study of its kind, 100 heroin users who have failed to respond to other treatments will be given the drug under supervision in the hope of weaning them off it.

The year-long trial by Professor John Strang of the National Addiction Centre at the Maudsley Hospital, south-east London, could pave the way for clinics where users could inject free heroin.

But the award, to be announced this week, came under fire from the Tories. Culture spokesman Greg Knight told The Independent: "The National Lottery is there to help the original good causes of heritage, arts and sporting charities."

A Home Office spokeswoman said the trial could help entrenched heroin users escape illicit drug use and crime.