Give addicts needles in prison, says drugs minister

PRISONS should be able to provide clean needles to addicts to allow them to continue injecting while serving their sentence, the drugs minister has said.

The call from Minister of State Noel Ahern clashes with the zero tolerance approach to drugs in prison taken by his senior Government colleague, Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

It has also raised the ire of prison officers who said drugs were not acceptable outside jails and should not be tolerated inside either.