BLUNKETT GETS TOUGHER ON DRUGS

Legislation will allow police to test suspects on arrest and make it an
offence to have drugs in bloodstream

New police powers to prosecute offenders for possession if they test
positive for drugs when they are arrested, even if the only drugs they have
are in their bloodstream, are to be announced this week.

The measure is part of legislation to be unveiled tomorrow in the Queen's
speech alongside plans to introduce identity cards and set up a national
agency to tackle serious and organised crime in Britain.

The home secretary, David Blunkett, confirmed yesterday that he was still
looking at new anti-terror powers. He believed there was a "strong case"
for judges in some terrorist trials to sit without a jury.

The proposals will be set out in a draft bill, but Mr Blunkett made it
clear that they will not be introduced to parliament immediately. "It is
not my intention to try and push a bill through this side of the general
election, whenever the prime minister calls it," he said yesterday.

Instead, the government intends to make the drug bill one of five measures
given priority in the next session of parliament.

It will contain a new power to perform drug tests on all those arrested
whom the police suspect are problem drug users and a range of other
measures to take advantage of the rapid expansion of drug-treatment programmes.

Tony Blair, who has insisted that the drug measures be introduced in a
separate high-profile bill, hopes that, in the run-up to the election, he
can make a massive expansion of drug-treatment programmes a key element in
the government's drive to cut crime.

Ministers have become frustrated that the reclassification of cannabis has
eclipsed major investment in ensuring that at least 150,000 problem drug
users are going through treatment every year. "We are doing a lot more to
break the link between drugs and crime, particularly with intervention
programmes, but you would not think so from the way the issue has been
debated over the last 18 months," said a Home Office source.

At present, the police only have the power to insist that a person takes a
drug test when they have been formally charged. The Home Office says that
allowing the police to test those who have been arrested is likely to
double the number who are tested in police stations to 240,000 a year.

The legislation is expected to introduce a new definition of "possession"
of an illegal drug, making it an offence to have a certain amount in the
bloodstream. This is likely to prove controversial - not least because some
drugs, such as cannabis, can remain in the bloodstream for weeks.

In a move which is likely to alarm human rights lawyers, ministers are
examining ways in which somebody who is the subject of an anti-social
behaviour order can be compelled to go through a drug-treatment course even
though they have not been convicted of a criminal offence.

Mr Blunkett told ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme yesterday that
decisions on new anti-terror laws could not be taken until the House of
Lords had ruled on the legality of the detention of foreign nationals at
Belmarsh.