BLAIR: MY WAR ON DRUG PUSHERS

TONY Blair is launching Britain's toughest-ever clampdown on drug pushers
after becoming alarmed by the rising number of young abusers.

He plans to introduce a hardhitting Drugs Bill in this year's Queen's
Speech which will give the police and courts more powers to tackle the
menace.

The Prime Minister has also revealed that he will reappoint controversial
drugs tsar Keith Hellawell later this year for another three-year term.

In a four-point strategy, the Drugs Bill will strengthen the law on
confiscating drug dealers' assets, give sweeping new powers for EU-wide
passport confiscation of anyone convicted of drug offences, crack down on
the link between clubs and the drugs industry - including tougher
regulation of bouncers and more withdrawal of licences - and allow more
Government help for rehabilitation and treatment of addicts.

The escalation of the war on drugs was revealed exclusively to the Sunday
Express by Mr Blair during his visit to St Petersburg yesterday. He firmly
rejected calls for the legalisation of cannabis and spoke of his fears
about drugs as a parent of teenage children. "We have got to crack down
very, very hard on the drugs industry," he said. "Parents are petrified
about drugs. Both as a government and in co-operation with other countries
we are going to do a great deal. But it is important people grasp the scale
of the problem. A problem as big as this needs radical thinking and
action."

Mr Blair met privately with the parents of Leah Betts, the Essex teenager
who died from Ecstasy. The Prime Minister has also had meetings with Mr
Hellawell, including one in Glasgow last week.

In a speech to the Scottish Parliament on Friday, Mr Blair said figures
showed nearly 300 young people died in Scotland alone from drugs each year.
Yesterday the Prime Minister revealed he was stunned to learn that 40 per
cent of Britain's schoolchildren aged 15 and 16 admitted using illegal
drugs.

Mr Hellawell has been criticised by some ministers over his frequent
foreign "junkets" and accused of making little impact in the battle against
drugs.

But a source very close to Mr Blair said: "Tony is a big supporter of Keith
Hellawell. He wants to give him a ringing endorsement and ask him to stay
on. He believes Mr Hellawell and his deputy, Mike Trace, are a good team
doing a terrific job.

"He thinks what difficulties Mr Hellawell has had have as much to do with
the conventional system of government - finding it hard to cope with
outsiders brought in to do new jobs in new ways. The problem has been that
Mr Hellawell lacks the power-base that being a minister with a department
has, and lacks the conventional authority to drive things through.

"We want to send a strong signal through Whitehall that Mr Hellawell is the
Prime Minister's special adviser and carries the clout that goes with it."

The Drugs Bill, which Mr Blair wants ready in time for the Queen's Speech
in the autumn, will include new powers to seize the assets of drug dealers.
"If you have a great mansion and no means of having paid for it, if you
cannot prove where this money has come from you, will have your assets
seized," said a senior Downing Street insider. The source emphasised: "We
are talking about hard drugs and organised criminals and breaking that link
between drugs and crime."

The targeting of bouncers in some nightclubs will be welcomed by many
parents who suspect that doormen themselves may be linked with drugs.

Last night Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe said: "The Government has
talked a lot about drugs but given precious few resources. It is unfair to
expect Mr Hellawell to move mountains when Tony Blair has been doing
nothing to help him."