Blunkett backs compulsory drug treatment in drive to cut crime
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David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, wants drug users to have compulsory treatment in an effort to cut crime, he said yesterday.
The proposal would cost hundreds of millions of pounds and place immense strain on Britain's overburdened network of rehabilitation clinics.
Mr Blunkett said he was considering compulsory treatment after speaking in London at the annual conference of the drugs charity Turning Point.
The Home Secretary spoke of the "crime wave" linked to drugs and said there was a need to get more offenders into treatment. He said: "We need to build on those [programmes] and are looking at whether they need to be compulsory."
The Home Office said Mr Blunkett was taking a futuristic look at drug policy and had no immediate intention of introducing compulsory testing.
But critics said such plans would lead to thousands of drug users facing jail for failing to attend treatment courses.
The Home Office revealed last June that 78 per cent of drug-addicted criminals never turned up for treatment after referral by the police. Addicts are only referred for voluntary treatment in a few cities and they are not penalised for failing to attend.
Mark Littlewood, a spokesman for the civil liberties group Liberty, said: "Rehabilitation of drug users requires their active commitment. There is precious little evidence that forcing people into compulsory treatment will do anything other than further alienate them from the authorities and make the drug situation in Britain worse." Pilot schemes have shown that one-third of those arrested for acquisitive crimes and drugs offences give positive results for so-called hard drugs. The National Treatment Agency said 120,000 people a year had drug rehabilitation at a cost of about £2,500 each for a basic programme. Central government spent a total of £236m on drug treatment in England in the past year.
Harry Fletcher, spokesman for the probation union, Napo, said it was not realistic to think that funding could be found to put hundreds of thousands more drug users into treatment. The system would "go into overload", he said.
Mr Blunkett identified 30 areas in England that were worst affected by drug-related crime yesterday and said they would receive a share of a £46m fund for local initiatives. The areas included relatively affluent places such as Ealing, west London, and Reading, Berkshire, as well as inner cities.