CONFISCATED DRUGS CASH TO FUND JOBS FOR ADDICTS

Small-time drug dealers are to be found jobs under a controversial
government scheme being funded out of the confiscated assets of drug
barons.

The "street-level" dealers are among heroin and cocaine users who are
to be helped to break the cycle of addiction and crime by
redistributing the profits of the drugs trade.

Keith Hellawell, the anti-drugs co-ordinator, said yesterday that the
programme would give employment to 150 drug addicts for two years.

Mr Hellawell admitted that many of those being helped would be
small-time dealers but said it was a "nice irony" that their
reintegration into society was being funded by major players in the
drug trade.

"Most of the people we are talking about are involved in criminality
because they don't have any money," Mr Hellawell said. "A large
proportion will be user-dealers but they are only doing that to pay
off debts or support their own habits."

The UKP500,000 scheme will be paid for out of the seized assets fund,
which is worth UKP5m this year, made up of wealth confiscated from
drug suppliers.

Mr Hellawell, who has powers to distribute the money to projects
dedicated to reducing demand for illicit drugs, said big-time dealers
were unlikely to find themselves on the job scheme. "The dealers who
have assets worth seizing are rarely addicted themselves. The people
we are looking at helping here are unlikely to have any assets worth
anything," he said.

The drugs "czar" said the job scheme - which will only be available to
people who have graduated from drug treatment programmes - would have
long-term benefits in reducing levels of crime.

He said: "Some addicts have never worked in their lives. If we cannot
get them into stable employment and accommodation, then the likelihood
is that they will be back addicted and committing crime. It's
important that we provide stability to get people back as productive
members of the community."

Mr Hellawell will today distribute UKP185,000 from the fund to
projects in Wales designed to reduce drug use, particularly by young
people and women.

One of these schemes will pay for addicts to be given counselling in
village pharmacies in rural Dyfed-Powys. And UKP500,000 will fund
projects to divert drug users into sport.

A further UKP500,000 will be used to recruit 600 new drug workers to
remedy the severe shortage of treatment facilities for drug users in
Britain.

Later this summer, Mr Hellawell will be flying to Eastern Europe to
visit prospective member states of the European Union and advise them
on their drug-fighting strategies.

He said that he would be paying special attention to banking systems
and border controls in the applicant nations. "These countries are
potentially going to be our outer borders," he said.