Pubdate: Sat, 18 Dec 2004
Source: Financial Times (UK)
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2004
Contact:  http://www.ft.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/154
Author: Jimmy Burns, Social Affairs Correspondent
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

DRUGS BILL ENVISAGES HARSHER PENALTIES AND TESTS

Tougher powers to punish drug dealers and force addicts into treatment
were signalled yesterday as part of the new drugs bill.

Under the proposals police will be able to test suspects for Class A
drugs such as heroin and cocaine before they have been charged.

There will also be longer prison sentences for dealers who try and
sell to children or use young people as couriers, with police expected
to work more closely with schools in enforcement and education programmes.

DrugScope and Turning Point, the drugs and social charities, said
taxpayers' money would be better used improving existing treatment
programmes, which showed a high drop-out rate.

But with opinion polls showing that law and order remains high among
voters' concerns, the government is sensitive to the Tory charge that
it has shown itself soft on drugs by reclassifying cannabis as a less
dangerous substance.

David Davis, shadow home secretary, said Labour had "failed to tackle
drugs and the problem is getting worse".

Ministers insisted their strategy was focusing resources on tackling
hard drugs, which had the biggest economic and social impact by
fuelling crime - an argument backed by police chiefs.

Whitehall officials said government efforts to break the "vicious
circle of drugs and crime" were being undermined by a significant
increase in opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the main source
for the bulk of the heroin entering the UK.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, opium
cultivation in Afghanistan during the past year had spread to all 32
provinces. Narcotics, said the agency, had become "the main engine of
economic growth and the strongest bond among previously quarrelsome
populations".
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MAP posted-by: Derek