IN A COUNTRY beset by drug-related crime - heroin addicts are now said to be stealing goods worth £1.3billion a year - any action to combat the menace, misery and expense has to be applauded.

And we welcome two efforts announced today - for they confront the problem effectively in "before" and "after" style.

The first is the Life Education Centre project - for which the government deserves credit for its firm financial support - which will send a mobile classroom to Lancashire's schools to teach young children of the dangers of drugs.

And the aim of educating children against drug abuse before adolescence and long before their attitudes are formed is a sensible and necessary step.

The second step is the pledge by Shadow Home Secretary Jack Straw to give the courts, police and probation service the right to test suspected drug users on community service sentences. Under the proposal, offenders found to have a drug problem would be served with treatment and testing orders, making them attend twice-weekly counselling sessions and undergo methadone treatment for four months.

The essence of this move - tried to good effect in the USA - is to snap the link between drugs use and crime.

The scheme will, no doubt, be costly.

But as a positive measure towards reducing the horrendous expense and misery caused by drug-related burglaries - which cost £84million in Lancashire last year - the pay-back in money, let alone in young lives saved and restored, should be worth every penny.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.