NEW DRUG TESTS 'MAY BREACH RIGHTS'

The Government's drive against cocaine and heroin abuse reflects
rising concern among ministers and officials at new trends in drug
use.

The the new measures promised yesterday by Tony Blair would change the
current bail system and there is concern that they would increase the
number of prisoners with drug problems.

John Wadham, director of Liberty, the civil rights organisation, said
yesterday that enforcing drug tests could be a breach of the European
Conventon on Human Rights. The first aim should be to stop people
taking drugs in the first place.

Mark Leech, a prison reformer, said that the Government should not
play the opinion polls with an illusion of reform. There should be
treatment for people who wanted help.

Earlier this year experts forecast that Britain was facing a new
epidemic of heroin abuse with a younger market centred on Scotland,
the South West and smaller towns.

At the same time there is also more cocaine use in London, Liverpool
and Manchester - the three drug capitals. Keith Hellawell, the
Government's anti-drugs co-ordinator, has privately expressed concern
about these trends.

Home Office research suggests that a third of all offences could now
be drug-related. One estimate claimed that addicts needed up to pounds
400 a week to fund their needs.