Letwin plan for families to tip-off police over drug use

Grandparents, parents and teachers will be encouraged to tip off police about suspected teenage drug users under Tory plans to force addicts to attend treatment clinics or be jailed. Oliver Letwin, the shadow Home Secretary, said his party would give up to 20,000 young heroin and cocaine users the option of avoiding a criminal record if they attend rehabilitation schemes.

But suspects who denied using hard drugs would be tailed by police until enough evidence was gathered to send them to prison, Mr Letwin added. The "tough love" approach was accompanied by a similar strategy to send young criminals to education and training units after prison, and parenting classes to prevent children taking a "conveyor-belt to crime".

In an echo of the drug controversy that surrounded his predecessor, Ann Widdecombe, two years ago, Mr Letwin immediately came under fire from David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, and drug charities, which claimed the drug policy would put parents and teachers of addicts in an "impossible situation".

Mr Letwin defended his plans, saying only those with the best interest of the child at heart would tip off the police or authorities and stressing that drug treatment was the best way to cut drug-related crime. "My hope is that ... very many parents, grandparents and friends will all be willing to come forward ... and say 'this guy needs help'," Mr Letwin said. If you want to press the matter and you deny this is the case, of course you have your rights. All I am saying is a bobby will be outside your house and following you around and making sure you are not buying heroin or cocaine."

Mr Letwin dismissed concerns about the impact on police manpower, saying it would take only a day at most for officers to discover if a suspect was a drug addict. The Police Federation and Association of Chief Police Officers had been consulted, he added.

But Mr Blunkett said the plan was unworkable and would force police chiefs to change their priorities in tackling crime. "It's not for politicians to commit the police to a free-for-all which distracts their job in providing protection to the public against a wide variety of crimes," he said.

Roger Howard, the chief executive of DrugScope, welcomed Mr Letwin's pledge to increase 10-fold the number of drug-treatment places, at a cost of £500m, because addicts were waiting up to five months for them. But he warned it would be "disastrous" to link treatment to the threat of jail, and attacked the idea of having parents, social workers and teachers "shop" youngsters. "Instead of identifying more young people with problems, this could drive them underground and lead to fewer young people coming forward for help."