ANTI-DRUGS CHIEF ATTACKS 'ARROGANCE' OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE BY
PROFESSIONAL CLASSES

PROFESSIONAL people who take drugs are as great a threat to society as any
other substance abusers, the Government's anti-drugs campaign co-ordinator
claimed yesterday.

Keith Hellawell said that he was appalled by the arrogance of people who
felt they had the right to buy illegal drugs because they could afford it.

"There is this arrogance, I would call it an intellectual arrogance, among
one group of people. They feel that because they are not causing any damage
to other people, which they are, they have a right to take drugs.

"Because they do not have to commit crime to feed their habit they also
feel they have a right to take drugs.

"If they are driving vehicles they could be causing damage, if they are
dealing with my pension fund they could be causing damage.

"Certainly if they are doing it in the workplace they could be doing damage
to themselves and others," he said.

Mr Hellawell claimed that there appeared to be an acceptance of drug use in
popular culture which manifested itself in celebrities talking openly about
their experiences with drugs.

"I wish that these people would recognise the danger and the damage that
they are causing themselves and to other people. It isn't a joke. It is
deadly serious. These substances cause them damage and the consequences of
them taking drugs causes other people damage," he said.

Random drug testing in the financial sector and the City has found that
roughly 15 per cent of people tested had taken drugs, usually cannabis or
cocaine. The level was three times the average of other industries.

Alistair Ramsay, the chief executive of Scotland Against Drugs, agreed with
Mr Hellawell that drug abuse among the professional classes was a social
problem.

He said: "Drug use spans the community and is not the sole provenance of
any one area."

Since being appointed to head the Government's campaign against drug use,
Mr Hellawell has attacked drug use in a variety of areas.

He recently endorsed the sacking of a Blue Peter presenter who was exposed
as a drug abuser by the News of the World. Mr Hellawell said the BBC were
correct to fire Richard Bacon because it sent the message to children that
drug use was unacceptable.

Mr Hellawell has attacked certain pop stars for sending out positive
messages about drugs saying that were bound to influence the younger
generation.

Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme yesterday, he said that the United
States' Just Say No policy had been effective but the country was now
facing similar problems to the UK.

"I think that the number of people who use drugs in the US has halved over
the last ten years," he said. "The worrying problem that they have is the
same as we have, the growing number of young people who are becoming
involved in hard drugs. Plenty of them will have their first experience of
drugs with heroin and substances of that nature."

Mr Hellawell has spent a year in his post as UK Drugs Co-ordinator and
Special Adviser to the Prime Minister. He said that he has managed to
achieve many of his objectives in raising the level of debate about drug
use and succeeded in bringing "the issue out into an open forum, to
recognise that there are many social ills that lead to young people getting
involved in drugs, to recognise that some of the young adult culture of
getting involved with drugs in the recreational context is something that I
think has not been brought out into the open before".

He added: "There are no simple solutions - legalisation will not resolve
the problem."

On the same programme, Paul Flynn, the Labour MP for Newport West, renewed
his call for the decriminalisation of cannabis. "The most dangerous thing
about cannabis is the fact that it's illegal and our young people, the
majority of whom are using cannabis, experimenting in some form, have to go
to the criminal markets to get it," he said.