allowed him to smoke it in his van

This was the politician, after all, who gave a drug addict $10 to buy crack cocaine and allowed him to smoke it in his van.
-- Peter the prevailer in The Vancouver Courier, Wednesday June 11 2008

So the politician (Sam Sullivan) allowed the drug addict to smoke it in the drug addict's own van? No, the drug addict was allowed to smoke it in the politician's van. Is it ever correct to use him and his in the same sentence when they refer to two different people?