Pubdate: Wed, 15 Oct 1997
Source: Daily Telegraph 
Contact: Drug tsar and his deputy take the reins 
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor 

BRITAIN'S first "drug tsar" declared his opposition yesterday to
decriminalising cannabis and urged "pop icons" to set an example to their
young followers as he prepared to take up his £102,000ayear Whitehall post.

Keith Hellawell, chief constable of West Yorkshire, beat off 200 other
applicants for the job of coordinating strategy against drug use. He will
be supported by a deputy, Michael Trace, currently director of the
Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners' Trust, and by a sixstrong
secretariat based in the Cabinet Office.

Mr Hellawell, 55, will formally take up the appointment in January but will
be involved immediately in developing new antidrugs policies. Regarded in
Whitehall as a "good communicator", Mr Hellawell courted controversy three
years ago when he predicted that cannabis would be legalised in the long
run. But he said yesterday that he did not think that it should be.

While he was prepared to countenance a "reasoned and informed" debate about
legalisation, he did not consider that such a move would be helpful. He
also suspected that campaigns in favour of legalisation were an inducement
to pushers.

"People who are peddling these things love these campaigns," he said. "They
can go into the playground and exert their pressure or influence on young
people to get involved."

Mr Hellawell  who has three adult children and two grandchildren  said
one of his main aims would be to influence the approach of young people to
drugs. He urged pop stars who had in the past extolled the benefits of
drugs to set an example.

He said: "I think part of our task is to encourage them to look to their
better nature and judgment to see if they will be an influence for the
better." He rejected suggestions that recreational drug use was inevitable.

"We can do something about it," he said. "I think throwing our hands up in
the air and running off like headless chickens will not help."

Mr Hellawell said he would combine education and rehabilitation with
enforcement of the law when it came to drugrelated crime. "We need
enforcement," he said. " We need security for our towns, our homes, our
vehicles. But we need to come in behind that so that people who are
committing crime because of drugs are taken out of that vicious circle." 

Mr Hellawell will have direct access to the Prime Minister and to a Cabinet
subcommittee that develops antidrugs strategy. No new money will be
available.

Mr Blair said: "We need real progress in reducing drug misuse, especially
among the young. The new antidrugs coordinator is a key post which will
help to galvanise the work already under way."

The appointments received a broad welcome, with the National Association
for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders describing them as a "dream
ticket".