Pubdate: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 Source: Scotsman (UK) Copyright: The Scotsman Publications Ltd 2000 Contact: http://www.scotsman.com/ Forum: http://www.scotsman.com/ Author: Gary Duncan BLAIR TO CALL FOR EU-WIDE DRUGS STRATEGY TONY Blair will use his speech at the parliament today to try to persuade the European Union to adopt a common strategy to fight drugs. Mr Blair, who will praise recent anti-drugs initiatives by the Scottish executive, including the creation of a Drugs Enforcement Agency, will argue that drugs are a cross-border problem requiring cross-border solutions, including continent-wide minimum sentences for dealers. The Prime Minister will make clear that Britain wants a pan-European anti-drugs effort to figure high on the agenda for the June summit of EU leaders in Portugal, and will call on Brussels to "raise its game" in tackling the trade. Mr Blair's official spokesman said the Prime Minister believes that more lenient drugs sentences in some countries may undermine the EU's efforts to curb the trade, with drugs barons establishing themselves where penalties are weakest. Mr Blair wants all EU countries to share intelligence and information to counter the drugs trade and to mount joint operations against it. In particular, the Prime Minister will emphasise that some of the EU's planned new members, including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia are often "right in the front-line", providing routes through which drugs reach the UK from Asia. He believes that they should be brought into a co-operative approach with existing EU states and join in a mandatory minimum sentence policy. The Prime Minister's proposals are designed to implement ideas put to him by the government's anti-drugs co-ordinator, the so-called drugs tzar, Keith Hellawell. Mr Blair will drive home his message on the issues when he joins Mr Hellawell on a visit today to a drugs rehabilitation project in Glasgow along with the deputy justice minister, Angus MacKay, and the head of the Drugs Enforcement Agency, Jim Orr. Last night Ann Widdecombe, the shadow home secretary, welcomed the idea of a Europe-wide mandatory sentencing policy, but said Mr Blair should "put his own house in order". "It is Labour's policy that has led to the early release of 2,000 convicted drug dealers," she claimed. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk