Blunkett pledges action on drugs
The Home Secretary David Blunkett has promised that more drug dealers will be imprisoned and more drugs taken off the streets as the result of a major new anti-drugs campaign.
Urban areas are to be targeted across England and Wales in an attempt to close down “crack houses and drug dens”. Powers available to the police under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act will also be used to seize dealers’ assets, drugs and fire arms.
The second prong of the campaign will focus on drug rehabilitation and testing efforts with the number of treatment places being expanded. There will be a series of pilot projects, beginning in December, where young offenders will be required to attend drug treatment places as part of their community sentences.
The Conservatives have also launched their drugs policy today, which promise a reversal of the reclassification of cannabis to a C class drug, an expansion of drug testing and drug rehabilitation places as well as a national TV warning campaign.
The Government is tabling new legislation (the Drugs Bill) to give police the power to test for drugs on arrest, introduce the presumption that people caught with “more drugs than reasonable for personal use” are guilty of intent to supply and make dealing drugs outside schools or using children as couriers an aggravating factor in sentencing.
Magistrates will also be given the power to remand into custody for 192 hours suspects who swallow packages of drugs in an attempt to hide them – until the evidence becomes available again.
Mr Blunkett, said that the Government has already taken “consistent and focused action” against drugs, with much achieved, but: “There is much more to be done if we are to reduce even further the harm caused by drugs.
“By 2008 we want to see safer communities with less crime. We want fewer lives to be destroyed by drug misuse and more young people achieving their full potential free from drugs. Effective treatment will be available promptly to all who need it. The new measures and legislation that we are announcing today will help us to achieve this.”
Andy Hayman, who chairs the Association of Chief Police Officer’s drugs committee, said he fully welcomed the proposals, which he said: “Should significantly enhance the ability of local forces to bring drug dealers to justice and direct addicts into treatment.
“An inherent strength in these proposals is the way in which officers carrying out the day to day job of drug law enforcement have been consulted by Government to ensure that legislators respond to the operational difficulties that are being experienced at street level.”
