UK DRUGS TSAR SUPPORTS TESTING WORKERS FOR DRUGS

LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Testing workers for illegal drugs should be an
integral part of a business' health and safety policy, the British
government's anti-drugs spokesman said on Thursday.

"Drugs testing is an important part of drug prevention," said Keith
Hellawell, known as Britain's "drugs tsar".

"I don't see drugs testing as a draconian, punitive measure. I see it as a
preventative measure," Hellawell told reporters at an event organised by
the independent Standing Conference on Drug Abuse (SCODA).

Public transport companies, nuclear power stations and the armed forces in
Britain already test employees for drugs.

Last week a survey found that 72 percent of elite private boarding schools
use some form of drugs testing. Tests are also used in professional sport
and in prisons.

Manufacturers at SCODA's conference displayed portable devices which could
detect drugs in urine within 10 minutes.

But drugs screening should only be used when justified, SCODA chief
executive Roger Howard said.

"The ethical debate is falling behind scientific advances being made in
drugs testing," he said. "We need to avoid knee-jerk reactions to positive
tests."

Outside the conference, a handful of protesters saying they were drugs
users waved placards and handed out empty urine sample pots emblazoned with
stickers saying "Stop taking the piss!"

The protesters said drugs screening at work discriminated against those who
used drugs in their own time but did not go to work intoxicated.

Hellawell said drugs use outside the workplace could still have
consequences at work.

He added he did not know which businesses had introduced tests.

Hellawell's comments came in the week that Scottish champion sprinter
Dougie Walker pleaded his innocence after admitting he had failed a dope
test. His lawyer said the substance involved occurred naturally in the
human body.

SCODA's Howard said: "There is a potentially huge problem with poor quality
testing."