HOME SECRETARY Jack Straw today launched war on the drugs underworld in a bid to stamp out a national explosion of heroin-related crime.

And he revealed the initiative for his campaign came to him as he watched a Darwen drug addict being dealt with by Blackburn magistrates.

The Blackburn MP is to unveil tough new moves ahead of Government figures, which say one in five people arrested are heroin addicts, when he addresses the Police Federation's annual conference on Wednesday.

And delegates will hear how he decided to introduce a version of an American-pioneered initiative after hearing the case at Blackburn Magistrates Court.

Mr Straw said today: "I remember sitting in a court and hearing about a young man whose solicitor said he had 'a not very serious' drug habit costing probably about £45 or £50 a day. This youth had been stealing car stereos right across Darwen to fund his habit." He is due to tell the Blackpool conference how courts will be given tough new powers to target the drug-addicted thieves responsible for stealing property totalling £1billion each year to fund their habits. Under the Crime and Disorder Bill, offenders will be forced to attend three-month courses of treatment with anyone failing random mandatory drug-tests or failing to complete community sentences being sent to prison.

He added: "The proposal is for a drug treatment and testing order for people convicted, not of drug related offences, but of crimes like burglary and robbery found to have a drug problem.

There will also be an intensive programme of treatment and rehabilitation as well as mandatory and random testing carried out by the Probation Service.

Mr Straw hopes the initiative could break the increasing vicious cycle of heroin-taking and crime which has been worsened by the price of a "fix" falling to just £10.

He said that within the last 10 years, areas like his constituency had developed drug problems more often associated with inner cities.

He added: "Blackburn is no worse than many similar-sized towns where things have got much more serious in the last 10 years.

"Our initial focus will be on heroin, and in some areas crack cocaine, because those drugs are fiercely addictive. But in time it could be expanded to category B drugs."

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