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UK: Q&A on the Hellawell drug report Stewart Tendler The Times Thursday 02 Aug 2001 What is the report about? Today's report looks at the success of the Government's drugs policy which was launched three years ago. The aim was to shift the balance from concentrating on crime to reducing the demand for drugs, through better education in schools and treatment for addicts. The police and customs officials were told to concentrate on the Class A drugs heroin and cocaine. Overall there were a series of targets set during the ten year period. What are its findings? The latest report claims the new strategy is broadly on target. Instead of departments and agencies working separately, they have been brought together in a common strategy. The strategy is divided into four main areas: young people, communities, treatment and the availability of drugs. By 2008 the number of young people using drugs should be cut by half and the number of re-offending drug users should be cut by 50 per cent. The number of users receiving treatment should be doubled, and the availability of Class A drugs should be halved. Although the Government says the picture is getting better, there are clearly problems. A new survey shows that the number of 11 to 15-year-olds trying cocaine has increased in the last year. Seizures of Class A drugs are up, but Mr Hellawell's report does not say what effect this has had on the market. There are suggestions that prices have not risen, so there is not the shortage in the market which better policing should create. The report accepts that more has to be done cut the supply of hard drugs. Who is Keith Hellawell? Mr Hellawell was the chief constable of West Yorkshire Police and a national police spokesman on drugs. He became the Government's special adviser on drugs - the "drugs czar" - at a salary of £106,000. He has now lost the job. Why is that? There were attacks on him for being ineffective and spending too much time abroad, which he refutes. After the election David Blunkett, the new Home Secretary, announced that he was terminating the job and Mr Hellawell is now becoming a part-time adviser. He says he did not want to continue in the job anyway. What criticism has the Government's drug strategy faced? The main criticism is that it is not realistic to set targets for an illegal activity like drug dealing and use. For example, one of the targets is to cut the number of gangs dealing in hard drugs by five per cent. Gangs do not advertise themselves, so who knows exactly how many gangs there are. Is the Government's stance on cannabis any clearer? Mr Hellawell said today that the Government is not budging on cannabis and will not change the law. But he welcomes the police experiment in South London where people found in possession of cannabis will get a warning and nothing more.
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