COKEHEADS TO BE TALKED OUT OF THEIR HABITS

Cocaine addicts will be treated with special "talking therapies" used to
cure the mentally ill, under new plans to be launched by the Government.

The National Treatment Agency (NTA), the government body set up to cater
for thousands of drug users, will launch a nationwide strategy later this
year based on cognitive therapy. Patients addicted to crack and powder
cocaine will be encouraged to talk about their problems and to learn coping
techniques in an attempt to wean them off the drugs.

Therapy-based approaches have already been used to treat addiction to other
drugs such as heroin. However, this is the first national strategy for the
treatment of cocaine addiction, for which there is no recognised treatment.

A government crack conference in June this year revealed that trafficking
and possession of crack cocaine in Britain has risen by more than 200 per
cent over the past three years.

Figures from the Metropolitan Police show that recorded offences for
trafficking crack have risen from 493 in the year to March 2000 to 1,117 in
the year to March 2002. At the same time, the number of recorded offences
of possession has risen from 713 to 829.

"There are more people using drugs in Britain than the rest of Europe,"
said Paul Hayes, the chief executive of the agency. "There is a large
benefit to the community as soon as users of crack cocaine and powder
cocaine are put into treatment."

This week, Mr Hayes will be addressing a special conference on drugs
organised by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo).

Acpo plans to carry out a six-month research project into the UK's crack
cocaine market. Andy Hayman, the Met's Deputy Assistant Commissioner and
chairman of Acpo's drugs committee, said he welcomed the use of a
therapy-based approach to cocaine addiction. "Therapies are not a 'soft
option' " the only way to reduce the demand is to help and support the
users as well as targeting the dealers," he said.

Another key speaker at the Acpo conference will be Dr Bruce Johnson, an
American expert on crack cocaine, who will be outlining how successful the
use of cognitive therapy has already been in the US in treating cocaine
addiction. Drug-treatment agencies there found that the proportion of
clients using crack in one year fell from 67 per cent to 29 per cent, and
that the proportion involved in drug-related crime fell from 43 per cent to
16 per cent.

Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, has been on a
fact-finding mission to Jamaica in an attempt to target dealers who traffic
cocaine. Cocaine worth an estimated AUKP6m a week is smuggled into the UK
in condoms swallowed by airline passengers.

However, the Met says this trade has diminished over recent months after
the introduction of special hi-tech "wands" that can detect cocaine inside
passengers.

Air Jamaica is understood to have reduced its number of flights to the UK
because of a decline in the number of drug-dealers booking seats.