There appear to have been some radical changes in British drug policy since the advent of AIDS. Since the discovery of the HIV virus among British drug users at the end of 1985, the pace of policy change has been rapid. Two major reports on AIDS and Drug Misuse have followed, together with £17 million for the development of drug services. At least a hundred needle exchanges offering new for used syringes are the most tangible public expression of new developments, underlining the view that the danger of the spread of AIDS from drug users into the general population is a greater threat to the nation's health than the dangers of drug misuse itself. British drug policy and in particular the visible manifestation of a harm-minimisation approach in the form of needle exchanges, has attracted world-wide attention. Some commentators have as a result argued that AIDS has changed the direction of British drug policy. ‘The only instance of AIDS overriding established policy objectives has been in the field of drugs… The Government had abandoned its previous stance of augmenting its restrictive and punitive policies on drugs now that AIDS had come to be seen as the greater danger.’ Others have been more cautious. Gerry Stimson comments: ‘these new ideas appear as a distinct break with earlier ones, but as with many conceptual and practical changes, the possibilities are inherent in earlier ideas and work.