TORIES WANT MORE DRUG TESTING IN SCHOOLS

Drug Addicts Could Avoid Prosecution By Opting For Treatment Instead Under
Plans Unveiled By The Conservatives Today.

The Tories also want to expand random drug-testing in schools and ensure
repeat dealers serve at least seven years in prison.

The six-point action plan to tackle illegal drugs was announced by
Conservative leader Michael Howard.

Under the plans, police would be given the power to divert addicts into
treatment without going through the courts.

In the first phase young addicts arrested for minor offences would be
offered the choice of going straight into a residential rehabilitation
centre or facing prosecution.

The aim would be to extend the scheme to older addicts in time.

Mr Howard said a Tory government would give local authorities the cash
needed to buy machines for random drug-testing in schools.

He said although Labour had allowed heads the freedom to test, it had not
given them the necessary funding.

The Tories would also change the law to ensure repeat dealers served the
minimum mandatory sentence of seven years.

Sentencing guidelines would also be changed to make it more likely adults
convicted of knowingly selling drugs to children would go to prison.

The Tory plans would also mean:

A ten-fold increase in the number of residential rehabilitation places to
more than 25,000.

A major advertising and advice campaign with a "clear, consistent"
anti-drugs message.

Restoring the B classification to cannabis in order to end the current
"confusion" and send a clear message that drugs are dangerous.

Mr Howard announced the plans on a visit to a north London estate blighted
by drug dealers.

"Drugs cause terrible damage to our society," he said.

"They ruin lives. They fuel crime. And wholly innocent people, and the
communities in which they live, are harmed.

"We could be doing more, much more. So today we are setting out our action
plan on drugs to help stop the spread of drugs, to help reduce the crime
which drugs fuel, and to help those, especially young people, who want to
turn away from drugs."