LAST TSAR TAKES AIM AT LEGALISATION LOBBY

Hellawell Defends Record In War On Drugs And Blames Media For Encouraging A
Relaxation Of Laws

Special report: drugs in Britain

Calls for drug legalisation in Britain come from a vociferous minority whom
the media are "happy to develop", the deposed drugs tsar Keith Hellawell
said yesterday.

Launching his final annual report, Mr Hellawell insisted that he had not
been sacked from his Pounds UK 106,000-a-year job as the government's
anti-drugs coordinator but confirmed that he was not on the public pay roll
and was waiting to meet the home secretary, David Blunkett, to discuss his
future role.

It was announced in June that Mr Blunkett was taking over the role of
anti-drugs co-ordinator and that Mr Hellawell, 59, was being sidelined with
a move to a part-time advisory role, focusing on international aspects of
drugs policy.

The former chief constable of West Yorkshire insisted that during his 3
years as Tony Blair's appointed "drugs tsar" he had made real progress in
establishing drug education in schools, developing treatment services and
reducing drug abuse in prisons.

But he acknowledged that during his time there have been worrying signs
that cocaine abuse has increased and that there has been a small, but
consistent, increase in the numbers of 11- to 15-year-olds who report
taking drugs.

Mr Hellawell said yesterday on a more positive note that overall drug use
among the general population appeared to be fairly stable with ecstasy and
amphetamine use levelling off, or even falling off, especially among people
aged 16 to 19.

Asked what he thought of an experiment by police in Lambeth, south London,
under which users were only given a verbal warning for cannabis possession,
Mr Hellawell said he saw nothing wrong with it but made clear that he was
not in favour of a national move to decriminalise the drug.

"We have a commitment internationally that cannabis will remain an illegal
drug. It is not going to be legalised. There is a concern that police
discretion is used with a degree of consistency and I know the government
is still interested in making that balance."

Mr Hellawell said the current calls for legalisation were vociferous but
came from fairly limited quarters but the media were only too happy to
"develop them".

He claimed that his annual report showed that "we are making good progress"
and the stage had now been reached where drugs were embodied as the main
business of all government departments rather than just treated as a fringe
subject as it was four years ago.

"This report shows that we have made solid progress along each and every
one of the areas that we set out to do. I have not been sacked. Every
special adviser in government has their contract terminated at a general
election. That is the law.

"I have been asked to stay on and do a specific job because many of the
things we have done in the international arena have been working well. I
will be talking with the home secretary in the next few weeks to determine
exactly what my role now will be."

The sidelining of Mr Hellawell probably means he will be the first and last
"drugs tsar".

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Andrew Lansley said Mr Hellawell had been
made the scapegoat for Labour's failure on drugs. "Keith Hellawell as
national anti-drugs co-ordinator did appear to make some progress at first
but he has now been made a scapegoat for the government's failure to tackle
the drugs problem," he said.