The only way, repeat the only way, of curbing the heroin trade is by curbing demand. London's policy, shared with Washington, of trying to stop its people from consuming heroin and cocaine by disrupting the supply chain, was never going to work. It has merely made supply more profitable. It has been pursued for the cynical reason that politicians find it easier to blame some poor foreign country for a British social problem than to tackle that problem domestically. While Britons and Afghans are dying in Helmand, the budget for drug rehabilitation at home is pitiful even by European standards.