DRUG OFFENDERS OFFERED TREATMENT INSTEAD OF JAIL

Drug offenders in Oldham will be spared prison and instead offered
treatment for their addiction, anti-drug workers have pledged.

The Greater Manchester Drug Action Partnership has hailed the succes
of its new arrest-referral programme in keeping addicts out of jail.

The policy will be stepped up as Greater Manchester implements
government orders to test and treat more addicts hauled before the
courts.

It will be driven forward in Oldham by the new drug action and
alcohol team set up in the summer.

Maureen Noble, Greater Manchester's drug action partnership
co-ordinator, made the pledge as she issued her annual report to the
government.

Mrs Noble said: "The arrest-referral initiative is working across the
county area to steer offenders away from a custodial sentence and
into treatment.

"In Oldham, the partnership has enabled us to co-ordinate that
approach because people are not always arrested in the areas they
come from. Now, if somebody from Oldham is arrested in Rochdale,
there is a link so our people can act immediately".

In the annual report, Keith Hellawell, the government's drug tsar,
has insisted that overall drug use amongst young people is rising at
a slower rate or levelling out.

He hailed a steady expansion of drug eduction in schools and better
targeted drug prevention programmes.

But Mr Hellawell admitted that more needed to be done to cut waiting
times for treatment for drug users.

The second annual report was issued as it was revealed that moves to
legalise cannabis for medicinal use could start as early as next year.

Cabinet Office minister Mo Mowlam said scientific results will be out
and then we can make a clear evaluation in relation to medicinal use.

Ms Mowlam said cannabis - if legalised for MS sufferers - would be
available in cannabinoid form, so it could be inhaled rather than
smoked.