Source: The Times April 1, 1997 Features RESPONSE TO PROPOSED 'DRUGS CZAR' Copyright (c) 1997, Times Newspapers Limited From Mr Tim Rathbone, MP for Lewes (Conservative) Sir, You are so right to question Tony Blair's plans for a " drugs czar" to lead the " war on drugs" (leading article, March 26). The idea and the phrases used are inappropriate to the solution of this considerable problem. In the US the job of czar is almost entirely dedicated to squeezing funds out of Congress and gathering the necessary persuasive information to do so. In Britain that is being done by the Central Drugs Coordination Unit, established by John Major in May 1992, reporting to a Cabinet subcommittee chaired by the Lord President of the Council. Previously, looser coordination took place within an interdepartmental ministerial group, started largely under pressure from the AllParty Drugs Misuse Group ten years ago. There is nothing "belated" about coordination, as Tony Blair claims. You suggest that a czarist presence is more likely to disrupt good works already going on than enhance their efficacy. I agree. Local Drug Action Teams (DATs) are only just getting going properly as the Home Office drugs initiative develops. Better health education in schools is only just beginning to be achieved with more and more teachers able to support it. Practically every week there is another international agreement struck to improve intelligence sharing, to tackle production and trafficking and to make law enforcement generally more effective. Improved counselling and treatment facilities in prisons and elsewhere are being introduced. A czarist shakeup could destroy all this coordinated effort and antagonise the extensive voluntary work that is part of it. All in all, Labour's drugs initiative must, I fear, be seen as a missed opportunity a rather crude burnishing of its law and order attitudes, riding on the back of continued alarm about Britain's drugs problem. Yours truly, TIM RATHBONE (Chairman, Parliamentary AllParty Drugs Misuse Group), House of Commons. March 26.