Bradford is leading the way in the battle against drugs, the UK's anti-drugs co-ordinator proclaimed in the city last night.

Keith Hellawell, former Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, told Bradford student pharmacists that initiatives launched in the city are being copied across the country.

"The arrest referral scheme started in Bradford, where drugs workers would be based at police stations or just across the road," he told the students.

"It meant that if people were arrested and they had a drugs problems, they could speak to a worker straight away if necessary. Bradford was the city that pioneered that and it is now used in many other places."

Mr Hellawell, a former divisional commander at Bradford, became special adviser to the Government in 1998.

He told the audience at Bradford University that what made the city special was the way the entire community worked together to combat drugs. And, after the low point of the Manningham riots, he was pleased to see things had improved in the city.

"People take drugs for different reasons," said Mr Hellawell, a coal miner before he entered the police force.

"On the one hand there are people who feel socially excluded and get involved in anti-social behaviour. On the other hand there are people who take drugs because they feel there's excitement and an attraction to being part of a scene.

"Bradford is not unique in having these problems here, but it is in the way they are addressed and Bradford has responded magnificently."

Mr Hellawell said Bradford was one of the first cities where pubs and clubs dubbed themselves as drug-free.

He urged the final year pharmacy students to consider themselves part of the fight against drugs after they qualified.

Many pharmacists in Bradford are already taking part in a scheme which, it is hoped, will cut methadone abuse by only allowing patients to collect their dose on a daily basis. It helps to prevent them overdosing and "dealing'' in methadone.

The grandfather-of-three also revealed he did not like his nickname of 'drugs tsar'.

"It sounds too authoritarian and dictatorial and that is not my job," he said.

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