UNDER-25S TARGETED IN TOUGH PLAN TO BREAK CYCLE OF DRUGS AND CRIME

Ambitious targets to halve the use of hard drugs among young people in
England and Wales were announced by the Government yesterday as part
of a tough 10-year plan.

Repeat offenders and the under-25s emerged as key targets to break the
cycle of crime and drug abuse as the first annual report by Keith
Hellawell, the drugs tsar, was published.

Announcing the plans in parliament, Jack Cunningham, the Cabinet
Office minister, said the plan focused on heroin and cocaine misuse,
which is a big cause of crime.

The RAC also seized the opportunity to appeal to the Government to
address the problem of motorists who drive under the influence of drugs.

It is estimated that three million people regularly take illegal drugs
in the United Kingdom, and a survey found that 85 per cent of the 22
to 25-year-olds believe that their peer group regularly drive after
taking drugs.

Government plans published yesterday suggest drug addicts should be
sent to rehabilitation clinics instead of jail in an effort to halve
the reoffending rate for drug addicts by 2008. It will depend on the
outcome of trials in Croydon, south London, Gloucester and Liverpool.
Dr Cunningham said: "If they show not to be an efficient use of
resources then we shall have to make changes."

Similar studies in the United States showed that offenders coerced on
to drug programmes fared no worse than people who went on them
voluntarily.

Paul Cavadino, the director of policy for the National Association for
the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO), said: "This is the
most significant package of measures to divert offenders from crime
announced in the last decade.

"Conventional punishments do nothing to stop offenders using drugs but
simply produce a vicious circle of crime, imprisonment and a rapid
return to drug use."

A heroin or crack cocaine addict can spend up to UKP20,000 a year on
drugs and accounted for 30 per cent of all crime. Dr Cunningham said
that cheaper, purer heroin was hitting the streets with children
experimenting from the age of 13.

Mr Hellawell announced that UKP3 million seized from drug traffickers
would be used to tackle the problem during 1999-2000 rising to
million in 2001-2.

Plans include cutting the use of heroin and cocaine by young people by
25 per cent by 2005 and 50 per cent by 2008 and the number of 11 to
16-year-olds using Class A drugs by 20 per cent by 2002. A further
36 million would be spent to identify the true scale of the drug
problem.

But the Conservatives cautioned against a let-up on other drug
controls. Tory MP Ann Winterton, said the country wanted "to see
effective deterrents of drug use and trafficking and they want to see
tough penalties". She added there should be "no soft message on drugs."

Dr Cunningham promised no let-up and criticised public figures who
glamorised drug-taking.

Speaking on the day that the former England rugby union captain
Lawrence Dallaglio admitted experimenting with drugs, Dr Cunningham
said: "We have had recently a whole series of high profile cases,
which are very, very damaging to the well being of the young people of
this country."

Meanwhile the RAC wants an awareness campaign to cut the number of
deaths on the roads involving drugs. Government statistics show 18 per
cent of such deaths were drug-drivers. This was three times the
number found in research conducted 10 years ago.