Will they issue cotton wool?

Under recommendations from the Home Office, police forces for Health and Safety reasons, are instructing officers not to lock up drunks. Rather, they should take in drunks only as a last resort when the drunk has refused to have medical attention

The police must call ambulances and accompany the drunks to hospital until they have had treatment Many forces are refusing to arrest the drunk and disorderly because the police are responsible for continual supervision while drunks sleep it off. The number of prosecutions has fallen significantly.

These people often have not committed any crime, except perhaps for nuisance, but they have caused considerable expense to the police and community for what is after all a matter of choice.

In other situations people who have hazarded themselves are charged for the costs of helping and treating them. Why should drunks be any different?