STRAW CITES WARNING OF MUTILATED TV STAR

JACK STRAW referred to the disfigurement of the former EastEnders actress
Danniella Westbrook as he announced plans for an agency to improve drug
treatment yesterday.

Drug abuse, the Home Secretary said, reached into every community and
respected neither wealth nor poverty, numbering among its victims "a young
television star with everything to live for, with her looks eaten away by
years of cocaine abuse". Westbrook has lost her septum, the flesh and
cartilage between nostrils.

Mr Straw plans a National Drug Treatment Agency to set targets and
standards for treatment by the health service, charities and voluntary
organisations.