POLICE SHOULD HAVE THE POWER TO TEST SUSPECTS FOR DRUGS

Dear Danny,

Conference rhetoric or no, drug misuse and related crime needs to move up
the agenda. Mention of mandatory testing is, of course, akin to waving a
red rag at a bull, but it can have a positive side: it may give more heroin
and cocaine users a helpful shove into intervention or treatment. But it
follows, of course, that these services must be in place now.

Even if it were true - and it isn't - that all drug crime is acquisitive,
relaxing drug laws would not necessarily bring drugs within economic reach.
Many legalisers foresee heavy taxation - and, of course, changes in the law
don't increase the personal income of users. Many would still end up
funding their lifestyles with crime.

You ask where the "war" on tobacco and alcohol has been. I ask: where have
you been if you haven't noticed the massive health promotion campaigns? And
Labour are hardly monopolising the drug platform, as you imply: senior Tory
and Lib Dem politicians alike have set out their stalls over the last
month. All-party support for the national strategy continues.

That strategy calls for more treatment resources, as you do. Me, too - but
if you really want to reduce offending, prevention is the only way forward.
Sadly, that notion gets abused as much as drugs,

Yours sincerely,
Peter Stoker
Director, National Drug Prevention Alliance