The UK Government's drugs policy is not working and is the equivalent of "shifting the deckchairs around on the Titanic", a former adviser said yesterday.

Julian Critchley, ex-head of the anti-drugs unit at the Cabinet Office, argued that ministers would never get a grip on the problem unless they took control of the supply of drugs through legalisation.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It was a slightly bizarre experience to attend a lot of meetings with people whose jobs were to produce and manage the government's drugs strategy.

"And on the fringes of those meetings there was a very large amount of agreement that actually this drugs strategy was shifting the deckchairs around on the Titanic.

"The drugs strategy doesn't work, cannot work, because we have no way of controlling the supply of drugs."

He argued that providing drugs - including Class A substances such as heroin - on prescription would stop addicts committing crimes to raise enough money to feed their habit.