Police chief to be joined by second drug tsar

By Valerie Elliott and Stewart Tendler

THE Government is so concerned by the threat of drugs that it has decided
to appoint two "drugs tsars" to lead a campaign against the problem. Keith
Hellawell, the outspoken Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police and a
national expert on drug problems, is to lead the work with police and on
the ground.

He is to be joined by a second person who has experience of prisons and
drug treatment to share the workload. The precise division of
responsibilities and the Government's approach to a new national drugs
strategy will be announced next week by Ann Taylor, the Leader of the
Commons and chairman of a Cabinet subcommittee on drug problems.

The decision to split the role came after ministers found great difficulty
reaching a decision about the choice of tsar. Part of the problem may have
been that ministers felt that Mr Hellawell, 56, may have been too old to
reach out to young people and their drug culture.

But the scale of the task was also a factor which persuaded ministers that
they should have two figures at the helm. Mrs Taylor is expected to
emphasise next week that the Government has no intention of legalising
cannabis.

The tsars are to have special adviser posts in the Cabinet Office. Salaries
are not known, but the present maximum salary for a special adviser is
£73,000.

Mr Hellawell, who held his current post for seven years, earns closer to
£100,000 and it is possible that Mr Blair might increase the salary of the
new job with the agreement of Parliament.

Mr Hellawell, a member of the Home Office's advisory council on the misuse
of drugs since 1994, has repeatedly given warning about the dangers to
society from drug abuse, including telling parents that soft drugs were as
much a part of today's youth culture as tobacco was to his generation. He
has also revealed evidence of heroin addicts as young as 12 turning to
prostitution, and the need for compulsory treatment of drug misusers.

Mrs Taylor has been privately studying work in Europe on drug problems and
spent two days this week in France and Holland. The trip included a visit
to a coffee shop in Amsterdam where cannabis is sold for personal use.