POLICE CHIEFS PLAN BIGGEST BLITZ YET ON DRUG DEALERS

McLeish heralds crackdown backed by initiatives aimed at reforming addicts

SCOTLAND'S eight chief constables are preparing to launch the biggest
crackdown on drug dealers in the country's history.

Police will work hand in hand this winter with customs officers, benefits
agency workers and The Inland Revenue, targeting not just the criminals but
also their assets, tax dodges and benefit frauds.

Henry McLeish, the Scottish home affairs minister, announced the campaign
yesterday at a press conference in Gorbals, Glasgow.

At the same event Sam Galbraith, the Scottish health minister, announced an
extra UKP5 million for health workers and social services to fund
initiatives aimed at reforming drug users.

The money includes: cash for the Health Education Board Scotland (HEBS) to
mount a campaign to warn young people of the dangers of heroin; an extra
UKP2 million to health boards to spend on drugs treatments such as
prescribing methadone as a substitute for heroin; and UKP2 million to fund
court sentences such as new drug treatment and testing orders.

"Spending on drugs treatment and community sentencing is also spending on
prevention of repeat offending by drug addicts," said Mr Galbraith.

"It helps to cut street crime and return drug users to a law abiding life.
Substitute prescribing has cut back sharply on crimes committed by heroin
injectors in Glasgow, and produced savings of half a billion pounds."

The anti-drugs campaign has been prompted by the rising numbers of
offenders reported for drugs possession, supply or importation. In 1988,
Scottish police recorded 5,213 drugs crimes - by 1997 that had risen 600
per cent to 29,386.

Mr McLeish said the effects on communities have been devastating, with drug
users responsible for half of all the crime committed in Scotland and
causing their families and neighbours untold misery.

"Strathclyde Police launched a major drive on Tuesday to attack
housebreaking linked to drug abuse. Other forces are preparing their own
campaigns and plans are being drawn up for a Scotland-wide blitz, involving
the police, local authorities, housing departments and others to reclaim
communities gripped by dealers."

He added that housing authorities would soon be able to use new powers of
eviction to throw drug dealers out of their homes, freeing neighbourhoods
from their reign of terror.

He also announced UKP50,000 to research the connection between drugs and
all types of crime. The study will be carried out in Strathclyde and Fife

Mr McLeish confirmed that he was considering changing the law to enable the
Crown to pursue drugs barons through the civil courts, taking advantage of
the lower standard of proof - "in the balance of probabilities" as opposed
to "beyond all reasonable doubt" in the criminal courts - to confiscate
fortunes made through the drugs trade.

"We must target drugs suppliers where it hurts most, in the wealth they
have acquired," Mr McLeish said.

He acknowledged the fears of civil liberties campaigners but said that it
was a question of balancing the rights of drug dealers with the rights of
communities like Cranhill and the Gorbals, devastated by drugs.

He promised to launch a further initiative within weeks, using electronic
surveillance to cut the amount of drugs in prisons.

Meanwhile, Scotland's two drug prevention teams, based in Glasgow and
Dundee, are to be merged into one national team with UKP700,000 funding.

David Campbell, the chairman of HEBS, which has been tasked with cutting
the number of young people attracted to heroin, said that he was keen to
avoid the mistakes of past media campaigns which had tended to glamorise
the drug.

The campaign will probably reflect the fact that different areas have
different heroin problems, with young clubbers in Grampian smoking heroin
on a Monday morning to help them come down from their weekend ecstasy high,
whereas young people in Glasgow smoke or inject it as a drug of first
choice.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski