MINISTER IN APPEAL TO BLACKS OVER DRUG GANGS

MORE must be done to tackle "extraordinary" levels of violence among the
black community as Britain faces a growing problem with the
highly-addictive drug crack cocaine, a Home Office Minister said yesterday.

Bob Ainsworth told delegates at the Government's first conference focusing
on the danger drug, that the scourge of crack is greatest among the black
community and they must help police to disrupt the supply and bring dealers
to justice.

"The black community does have a problem. The levels of violence with the
black community are quite extraordinary," he said.

"Operations Trident and Atrium (which have targeted black-on-black drug
related crime in London and Bristol) tell me that where they can get the
community onside, where they get intelligence, where they get information,
they have had substantial successes in disrupting the supply and
organisations of crack cocaine dealers.

"Crack cocaine, I think, tends to a disproportionate degree, although not
exclusively, to be a problem for poorer communities.

"And I think we have a duty to alert people and to try and get people
together and learn from each other."

Mr Ainsworth was speaking out after a spate of shooting incidents among
rival drug gangs in some of Britain's biggest cities, including London,
Leeds, Bristol and Manchester, in recent years.

His comments were made on the back of Home Office figures which show twice
as many black people say they have tried crack compared with whites, but
the numbers are very small - two per cent of black people compared with one
per cent of whites.

Meanwhile, white people are more likely to use cocaine and Ecstasy than
blacks (five per cent compared with three per cent).

Mr Ainsworth told the conference that the problem of Jamaican gangs who
supply and control a large proportion of crack cocaine in the UK -
including pockets of Yorkshire - cannot be ignored.

There was a "particular problem" with the highly-addictive drug and the
violence associated with its trafficking, he said.

"Everything I have been told from Customs, Operation Trident in London and
Operation Atrium in Bristol, would suggest to me that a high proportion of
crack cocaine that is manufactured in this country is manufactured from
cocaine that has come via Jamaica.

"We need to try and disrupt the gangs that are controlling that supply and
are responsible for a large proportion of the conversion into crack. So it
is a problem that cannot be ignored."

Home Office figures released last month showed that compared with 1999,
there was an eight per cent rise in seizures of crack cocaine in 2000.

A senior police officer recently warned that Britain might be on the brink
of an epidemic of crime caused by use of the drug.

Avon and Somerset Chief Constable Steve Pilkington said street robberies in
Bristol had risen by 77 per cent over the past year, which was fuelled by
an increase in the use of hard drugs, particularly crack.

But Mr Ainsworth's comments came under attack from Shadow Home Secretary
Oliver Letwin who accused the Government of ignoring the fact the problem
had got worse in the last few years.

He said: "It is all very well for a senior Minister to tell a high-level
conference that the problem cannot be ignored. We all know that, and we all
agree that it is a desperate problem blighting many of our most vulnerable
communities.

"What Mr Ainsworth fails to acknowledge is that the problem is getting
worse under this Government.

"During the last two years street prices of crack cocaine have fallen,
increasing its availability. This means that more and more lives are being
ruined."

Harry Fletcher of probation union Napo also condemned Mr Ainsworth for his
comments about the black community.

"It is simplistic and dangerous to say that crack is a black problem," he said.

"Where there is a large drug-taking population, crack is also used by large
numbers of whites and Asians.

"It is a problem for the whole of the community and research shows the best
treatment is to get the crack addicts into residential placements without
delay.

"So it is extremely worrying that there is currently a six-week waiting
list for addicts to get that help through the Government's arrest referral
scheme."

The Government's drugs policy is currently under close scrutiny after Home
Secretary David Blunkett announced he wants to downgrade cannabis from a
class B drug to class C, meaning possession of a small amount would no
longer be an arrestable offence.

The Commons Home Affairs Select Committee has also backed the move, along
with the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, and Mr Blunkett is
expected to announce a final decision soon.

Earlier this year the Liberal Democrats became the first main party to
adopt legalisation of cannabis as an official policy.