HARD-HITTING government plans to tackle the growing menace of drug-related crime were today welcomed in East Lancashire - where junkie crooks are committing thousands of offences every year.

Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw is to launch the offensive in a new Crime and Justice Bill to be introduced to parliament later this year.

The proposals include:

Mandatory drug-testing for anyone arrested for a criminal offence.

No bail for almost all suspects found to be using heroin or cocaine

Random drugs tests on offenders on probation.

Detective Inspector Tony Harling of Blackburn police said he welcomed anything that attempted to tackle the problem of drug-related crime.

He said: "It is a major problem in East Lancashire where there are a lot of drugs and a lot of people who take drugs. People who are addicted to class A drugs like heroin or cocaine are looking for anything they can get their hands on and will turn to shop-lifting, burglary, car crime - anything that will pay for their next fix. "And as soon as they've got it they're on the look out again."

Lancashire Constabulary's Eastern Division, which covers Blackburn, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley, and the Pennine Division, which covers Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale, deal with more crime than almost anywhere else in the county.

And earlier this year residents attending a public meeting on crime and disorder in Burnley heard how burglary was by far the area's biggest problem and that much of it was caused by addicts trying to raise money for drugs.

Mr Straw said the new bill was part of a comprehensive programme designed to tackle the consequences of taking drugs.

He went on: "In Blackburn I have spoken to many drug addicts and former drug addicts and it is a problem in the town. When these measures come in I hope they will have a significant effect in tackling drug-related crime in Blackburn and elsewhere."

Blackburn's Fr Jim McCartney, who has become a national spokesman on the problems facing socially excluded people like drug addicts and prostitutes, also welcomed the new plans. But he said he would like to see offenders and suspects undergo rehabilitation while in custody.

"I'm glad to see we are finally starting to relate criminality with drugs and agree with the principal of refusing bail, but if these people do not receive rehabilitation when they come out and find themselves in exactly the same circumstances. It won't work."

Mr Harling said Lancashire Constabulary already had a drugs counsellor who regularly visited the cells. He said suggestions that 50 per cent of people arrested have a connection to drugs was a conservative estimate and that drug-related crime was conducted on a massive scale in East Lancashire.

He said: "This problem affects every household in East Lancashire and I welcome anything anyone can think of to sort it out. Anything at all has to be worth a try."

The government's plans to make drugs and law and order a top priority were revealed by Prime Minister Tony Blair as Labour's centenary conference opened in Bournemouth.

The moves came after a Home Office study of five British cities found 61% of all people arrested had drugs in their system.

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