|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: Blunkett revises drugs targets
Ananova
Tuesday 03 Dec 2002 Ministers have abandoned the anti-drugs target set by former drugs tsar Keith Hellawell. Home Secretary David Blunkett has now launched an updated national drugs strategy. Targets of 50% cuts in the availability of Class A drugs have been replaced by targets based on proportions of user groups rather than overall reductions. The previous targets included cutting by 25% and eventually 50% the availability of heroin, the number of young people using it and levels of repeat offending. Mr Blunkett said it was important to set achievable targets rather than "pick a figure out of the air". He said he wanted to avoid mistakes made when the previous targets were set by Mr Hellawell, who resigned in July in protest at the Home Secretary's plans to downgrade cannabis from Class B to C. The new strategy will see an extra 500m pound in the budget to tackle drugs by 2005-2006, an increase of 44%. The strategy focuses on tackling the 250,000 problem drug users who account for 99% of the costs of drug crime in England and Wales. It stresses the importance of educating young people about drugs and getting young offenders into treatment at every stage of the criminal justice system. The strategy also says there will be regional police "hit squads" to break up the middle men who operate between street dealers and the international drugs trade.
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!