RESPONSE TO PROPOSED 'DRUGS CZAR'
Copyright (c) 1997, Times Newspapers Limited

From Mr Tim Rathbone, MP for Lewes (Conservative)

Sir, You are so right to question Tony Blair's plans
for a " drugs czar" to lead the " war on drugs"
(leading article, March 26). The idea and the phrases used
are inappropriate to the solution of this considerable
problem.

In the US the job of czar is almost entirely dedicated
to squeezing funds out of Congress and gathering the
necessary persuasive information to do so. In Britain that
is being done by the Central Drugs Coordination Unit,
established by John Major in May 1992, reporting to a
Cabinet subcommittee chaired by the Lord President of the
Council.

Previously, looser coordination took place within an
interdepartmental ministerial group, started largely under
pressure from the AllParty Drugs Misuse Group ten years
ago. There is nothing "belated" about coordination, as
Tony Blair claims.

You suggest that a czarist presence is more likely to
disrupt good works already going on than enhance their
efficacy. I agree. Local Drug Action Teams (DATs) are only
just getting going properly as the Home Office drugs
initiative develops. Better health education in schools is
only just beginning to be achieved with more and more
teachers able to support it.

Practically every week there is another international
agreement struck to improve intelligence sharing, to tackle
production and trafficking and to make law enforcement
generally more effective. Improved counselling and
treatment facilities in prisons and elsewhere are being
introduced. A czarist shakeup could destroy all this
coordinated effort and antagonise the extensive voluntary
work that is part of it.

All in all, Labour's drugs initiative must, I fear, be
seen as a missed opportunity a rather crude burnishing of
its law and order attitudes, riding on the back of
continued alarm about Britain's drugs problem.

Yours truly,

TIM RATHBONE

(Chairman, Parliamentary

AllParty Drugs Misuse Group),

House of Commons.

March 26.