TORIES WANT LIFE FOR DRUG PUSHERS

Criminals who supply hard drugs to children would automatically go to
prison for life after a second offence under a draconian increase in
penalties to be proposed by William Hague next week.

Adults who supplied cannabis or other soft drugs to children would get a
mandatory seven-year sentence, currently the penalty for hard drugs.

The plan would put suppliers of hard drugs - heroin, cocaine, LSD, crack
and Ecstasy - on the same footing as armed robbers, rapists and murderers
in the criminal justice system.

Mr Hague believes that the move is justified by the scale of concern among
parents about their children being exposed to the risk of drugs. A Tory
source said: "We must nip drug use in the bud by stopping drugs getting to
young people. To do that we must stop the suppliers. Those who peddle drugs
to our children are some of the worst criminals in society."

The proposal, to go before the Shadow Cabinet at a special "away-day"
session in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, next Tuesday, is the most dramatic
example so far of Mr Hague's determination to wrest back the law-and-order
initiative from Tony Blair.

He has asked senior members of his Shadow Cabinet to come forward with
policies that will enable the Tories to have a more radical cutting edge
than Labour. These include welfare, law and order, the constitution,
education and Europe.

The new policies are to be pulled together in a mid-term manifesto for the
Tory conference in October, which some party sources are already comparing
to the Right Approach drawn up in 1976, three years before the election of
the first Thatcher Government.

The Tory leader believes that crime is an obvious area where Labour has
talked tough and done little and believes that the threat to the young from
drugs is one of the most pressing concerns in the country today.

The plan for tougher penalties has come from a policy group under Ann
Widdecombe, the Shadow Home Secretary.

But Mr Hague has been closely involved in the decision to toughen the law
against drugs. A senior Conservative source said last night that the aim
was to "put away until they can do no more damage" those who supplied drugs
to children.

The Conservative proposals will build on the Crime (Sentences) Act, brought
in under the previous Government, which provided that anyone convicted for
a second time of serious sexual or violent offences - such as rape, murder
or armed robbery - received an automatic life sentence.

The same Act provided that anyone dealing in "Class A" drugs for a third
time received an automatic sentence of seven years.

Under the proposals to go to the Shadow Cabinet, the penalty that currently
applies to Class A drugs would under a Tory government be applied to Class
B drugs such as cannabis and amphetamines.

In a drastic break with precedent, those adults convicted twice of
supplying Class A drugs to a child would get an automatic life sentence.

Mr Hague's determination to harden up the policy against drugs was
increased by recent Home Office research which showed that 40 per cent of
14-year-olds had tried an illegal drug at least once; 50 per cent of
16-year-olds had tried cannabis at least once and nearly 10 per cent of
16-year-olds had tried Ecstasy at least once. Even more worrying, 2 per
cent of each age group had tried cocaine at least once and 2.5 per cent of
16-year-olds had tried heroin at least once.