SMUGGLERS ARE STILL AHEAD IN DRUGS WAR

The war against drugs in Britain is being lost, with more substances
being smuggled into the country causing a collapse in street prices
and threatening a new heroin epidemic.

Jack Cunningham, the Cabinet enforcer, issued a warning of the danger
facing young people from a flood of cheaper and purer heroin as the
Government set ambitious new targets designed to reduce hard drugs
abuse.

Dr Cunningham highlighted the failure of attempts to control illegal
import of drugs when he said that though seizures had increased
significantly there had hardly been any effect on supplies reaching
the streets.

"Seizures of illegal drugs have increased tenfold but the availability
on the streets has not declined. We know that heroin is available in
higher quantities in greater purity than ever before". The minister,
who has responsibility for co-ordinating drugs policy added: "If you
have a purer, cheaper product on the streets it clearly poses a
serious threat to young people. Whether it is an epidemic is too early
to say but that is the situation we are facing. We clearly have to
watch this situation very, very carefully."

His warning came after a grim assessment of the effectiveness of the
UKP1.4 billion fight to curb drugs by Customs and Excise which said
that there was increased demand in the country leading to more
substances coming in.

Dr Cunningham accused sports stars and public figures who took cocaine
of undermining the drive to curb drugs abuse. "It gives an abysmal,
appalling example to young people. There is no glamour in drug-taking
and associating drug-taking with success in life is pathetic. There is
no doubt if some sports star or huge public figure presents themselves
as a drug-taker, it does have an undermining effect on what we are
trying to achieve."

Dame Valerie Strachan, chairman of Customs and Excise, told MPs that
the country had a serious drugs problem. "I do not delude myself that
we are winning the war against drugs." She was speaking only hours
before Dr Cunningham and Keith Hellawell, the Government's drugs
supremo, announced targets to curb heroin and cocaine abuse and a
renewed drive to break the link between drug-taking and criminal activity.

Unveiling a ten-year strategy, both men said that there would be a
shift towards drugs education and prevention. The plan set a series of
targets. The proportion of people aged 16-25 using cocaine and heroin
is to be cut by half by 2008 and by 25 per cent by 2003, the number of
11-16 year olds using Class A drugs is to be cut by 20 per cent by
2002.

Other targets include reducing by half by 2008 repeat offending by
drug-using criminals and by 25 per cent by 2005; increasing the number
of drug users in treatment programmes by 66 per cent by 2003 and 100
per cent by 2008. Dr Cunningham defended the absence of any baseline
figures in the plan by arguing that existing statistics were "fragile"
and "inadequate". Drugs charities welcomed the Government's new
targets but cautioned that drug

services would be placed under substantial pressure unless more money
was found to help them to meet rising demand. In some cases people can
wait six months to get treatment and some residential centres have
been forced to close through lack of funding.

Steve Taylor, of the Standing Conference of Drug Abuse, said it would
take a long time to achieve a significant drop in misuse of drugs.
"This is like trying to turn round a supertanker."