DRUG TSAR TO TARGET 'RICH KID' ADDICTS

YOUNG middle-class "recreational" drug users are to be targeted in a
national anti-drugs campaign that will stress the harmful impact on the
environment and human rights of taking illegal substances.

Warnings about the long jail sentences that drug convictions can carry and
the dangers of driving while under the influence of drugs will also be used
to frighten off "recreational" users, including university students. The
switch in tactics is to be introduced by Keith Hellawell, Britain's drugs
"tsar", following concern that campaigns are failing to reach young
"achievers" and clubbers.

Mr Hellawell, in an interview with The Independent, also revealed that he
will encourage the makers of television soap operas, including Coronation
Street and EastEnders, to include story lines that highlight the
consequences of taking drugs. He is to meet regional newspaper, radio, and
television editors to urge them to include more information about the long
prison sentences involved and the medical and social repercussions of
drug-taking. Schools will also be encouraged to teach students the jail
terms drug offences carry.

The move is an attempt to persuade what Mr Hellawell terms the "rich kids",
university students and clubgoers, into giving up drugs. He is particularly
worried that research suggests that heroin is being used as a
"recreational" drug and that the young "achievers" believe they can take
substances, such as ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis, without harmful effects.

Mr Hellawell, the UK's Drugs Co-ordinator, said: "I am talking about a
group of 'rich young kids' - young achievers in their late teens and early
20s who don't have to commit crime to pay for their drugs.

"They are critical of people who drink and drive, of human rights and
pollution." He added: "If you look at why most people are involved in drugs
you find deprivation, lack of care and social exclusion."

But there were others, he said, who used drugs recreationally who do not
come from that deprived group.

"It's quite a substantial group that's a more recent phenomena. But they
don't necessarily need the same initiatives as the first group. The issues
that seem to work with this group are the medical, legal and social
consequences."

On environmental issues, he said that millions of drug needles end up in
children's playgrounds, on beaches and in the countryside.

"Human rights is another issue - you can explain to young people that some
organisations involved in drug production have appalling human rights
records. They are supporting these people by using drugs."

He gave the example of the Taliban, an extremist Islamic group who control
most of Afghanistan, which produces much of the UK's heroin.

The Taliban has banned women from working and forced them to cover up,
banned music, television and alcohol, and ordered men to pray five times
daily in a mosque.

He believes most young people are ignorant of the law on drugs.

He cited the example of two recent visits to a comprehensive school in
Middlesbrough and a private school in Solihull, near Birmingham, where he
asked groups of 14 to 17-year-olds what was the maximum penalty for being
caught in possession of 12 ecstasy tablets.

The answers ranged from a "slap on the hand", to two years' imprisonment.
"They were visibly shaken when I told them they could get life in prison,"
said Mr Hellawell.

Clubbers switch to cheap cocaine

LONDON clubbers are rejecting ecstasy amid growing fears about the dangers
of the drug and switching to cocaine as its market price falls, according
to a new survey.

Researchers from the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence say that
cocaine is increasingly viewed as a fashionable substitute for ecstasy and
amphetamines, the two drugs most often linked to the club scene.

Young people in London are said to be switching to it as prices of the
drug, traditionally associated with rock stars and the jet set, tumble.
About half of a group of 350 recreational drug users aged between 16 and 22
said they had tried cocaine, a class A drug which can lead to mental
breakdown. only 1 per cent said they had taken heroin, another class A
drug. "cocaine may be becoming a popular choice for young drug users in the
capital, who worry about the quality and dangers associated with ecstasy
and who regard amphetamines as a poor substitute," say researchers.