In one sense, the problem is in our hands. Demand for heroin is the reason for crime and we all know that the money involved in the heroin trade drives the crime attaching to it. It does not take a great mind to arrive at that conclusion. If we were to do something daft and stupid tomorrow morning, namely, make heroin freely available to anybody who wanted it, the crime wave would effectively end. Admittedly, people would kill themselves using drugs, addiction would continue and we would have a subculture of people in society with whom it would be impossible to deal. Nevertheless, there would be no crime if there was free access to heroin – people would not break into old people's homes, no one would be shot for carrying drugs and half the Garda Síochána would not be chasing drug dealers.