LONDON (Reuter) British experts on addiction warned the government Friday
that its planned new 'drug czar' must not wage a police war but should
instead harness science to fight illegal drugs.

The new Labor government has advertised for a drug czar to fight growing
illegal drug use in the country. The position mirrors one in the United
States.

John Strang, director of the National Addiction center in London, and
colleagues welcomed the idea. ``It is good news that the new Labor government
is evidently serious about the growing national and international drug
problem,'' they wrote in the British Medical Journal.

``But there is a grave danger that the increased political attention could
backfire, producing a more politicized approach to the problem and causing
the new czar's dominant orientation to be one of control.''

Strang and his colleagues said it would be easy to make a show of fighting
drugs.

``It could lead to a mistaken bias to funding more panda (police) cars,
prisons, and pop propaganda instead of evidencebased treatment,
rehabilitation, and preventive strategies,'' they wrote.

``Prisons are already bursting with new inmates,'' they added.

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