Subj: Straw rejects report of rise in drugs use

Date: Apr 27, 1998

Source: The Guardian

Straw rejects report of rise in drugs use

By Alan Travis, Home Affairs Editor

Hard drugs are damaging more young people than ever, according
to a report by Britain's biggest drugs charity.

Turning Point claims that increasing numbers of teenagers suffer
from the effects of heroin addiction. The charity claims that the
number of young people it treated last year increased by 12 per
cent to 29,599, including a dramatic rise in young women.

Asked about the report, the Home Secretary, Jack Straw,
strongly denied that the Government was losing the war on drugs.

Speaking yesterday on BBC1's Breakfast with Frost, Mr Straw
said: "It is not the case that more and more and more young
people are taking drugs.

"The best evidence based on British crime surveys and other very
independently-conducted surveys is that drug-taking among
young people is stabilising.

"There's some evidence to suggest that it had gone down a little."

The report throws a shadow over a white paper, to be published
today, which sets out a 10-year strategy for dealing with
drug-taking.

As well as an increase in heroin use, the Turning Point report also
shows a rise in use of ecstasy and cocaine among young people.

Mr Straw did acknowledge that too many young people were
trying drugs to allow any complacency.

"Half of all youngsters have experimented with drugs, and that's
far too high a proportion," he said. The white paper, to be unveiled
by the "Drugs Tsar" Keith Hellawell, will propose counselling
together with "healthy lifestyle" classes for school children.

But at its heart is a compulsory drug testing and treatment order
that will steer offenders who use illicit drugs into treatment. New
Home Office research shows that 63 per cent of all those taken to
police stations after being arrested tested positive for illicit drugs.

Today's white paper says those who are convicted of possessing
cannabis should be referred to counselling, and that hard-drug
addicts who steal to pay for their habits should be sent for
compulsory drug treatment.

Ministers insist that the latest American research shows that
treatment programmes do not have to be voluntary to be
successful.

But treatment workers fear that the current overburdened network
of treatment services will be overwhelmed by the plan.

Pressure groups yesterday also claimed they will not get the
resources they would need to implement new measures.

Increased spending is unlikely until the Government spending
review is completed later in the year.

Roger Howard, chief executive of the Standing Conference on
Drug Abuse, said the Government had estimated it would cost
£40 million to implement fully the drug testing and treatment
provisions contained in the Crime and Disorder Bill.

The programme is to be introduced with three pilot schemes, the
first on Merseyside, backed by only an extra £1 million of public
funds.

"The Government needs to give a clear signal at the launch of the
national drugs strategy that it will go further than just allocating
the £1 million needed to fund three pilot projects.

"The level of drug-related crime indicated by recent Home Office
research and the success of drug treatment means we have to
wonder whether £40 million is sufficient to meet the potential
need. People going to already overburdened drug treatment
services must not be displaced by those referred from the courts,"
said Mr Howard.

Ministers will also come under pressure today from local authority
social services directors, who are pressing for the Government's
drugs strategy to be extended to cover alcohol abuse.