BLAIR TO CALL FOR EU-WIDE DRUGS STRATEGY

TONY Blair will use his speech at the parliament today to try to persuade
the European Union to adopt a common strategy to fight drugs.

Mr Blair, who will praise recent anti-drugs initiatives by the Scottish
executive, including the creation of a Drugs Enforcement Agency, will argue
that drugs are a cross-border problem requiring cross-border solutions,
including continent-wide minimum sentences for dealers.

The Prime Minister will make clear that Britain wants a pan-European
anti-drugs effort to figure high on the agenda for the June summit of EU
leaders in Portugal, and will call on Brussels to "raise its game"
in tackling the trade.

Mr Blair's official spokesman said the Prime Minister believes that more
lenient drugs sentences in some countries may undermine the EU's efforts to
curb the trade, with drugs barons establishing themselves where penalties
are weakest.

Mr Blair wants all EU countries to share intelligence and information to
counter the drugs trade and to mount joint operations against it.

In particular, the Prime Minister will emphasise that some of the EU's
planned new members, including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania,
Bulgaria and Slovenia are often "right in the front-line", providing routes
through which drugs reach the UK from Asia. He believes that they should be
brought into a co-operative approach with existing EU states and join in a
mandatory minimum sentence policy.

The Prime Minister's proposals are designed to implement ideas put to him by
the government's anti-drugs co-ordinator, the so-called drugs tzar, Keith
Hellawell.

Mr Blair will drive home his message on the issues when he joins Mr
Hellawell on a visit today to a drugs rehabilitation project in Glasgow
along with the deputy justice minister, Angus MacKay, and the head of the
Drugs Enforcement Agency, Jim Orr.

Last night Ann Widdecombe, the shadow home secretary, welcomed the idea of a
Europe-wide mandatory sentencing policy, but said Mr Blair should "put his
own house in order".

"It is Labour's policy that has led to the early release of 2,000 convicted
drug dealers," she claimed.