NEW TARGETS AIM TO BREAK DRUGS LINK

Tough new targets are expected to be set today to try to break the link
between drug abuse and crime.

The targets are due to be announced with the launch of the first annual
report of anti-drugs tsar Keith Hellawell.

The Government's reported aim is to cut the re-offending rate for drug
addicts in half by 2008 mirroring targets set by Mr Hellawell's counterpart
in the US.

Measures expected to be announced include a plan to encourage judges to send
offenders to rehabilitation centres for treatment rather than to prison.

The drug treatment and testing orders have been on trial in Croydon, south
London, Gloucestershire and in Liverpool and the Government hopes to run the
scheme nationally.

Only a few dozen offenders have been on the British trials and the charity,
Standing Conference on Drug Abuse, said it was too early to say if they had
been successful.

Similar studies in the US showed that offenders coerced on to drug
programmes fared no worse than people who went on them voluntarily,
according to chief executive Roger Howard.

A Home Office drug testing study last year showed that 61% of people
arrested had taken at least one illegal substance.

Nearly half of those arrested who said they had taken drugs within the last
year said their drug use was connected with offending.

They turned to crime partly to finance their drug habits, which cost up to
UKP20,000 a year, according to the study. Cabinet Office Minister Dr Jack
Cunningham is due to announce the performance targets to tackle drug misuse
to Parliament today.

He will announce the publication of Mr Hellawell's report and action plan
which will set out the aims to cut drug crime into the new Millennium.