Tame the cocaine stars: Drug-taking celebrities blasted by UN

The leniency shown to celebrity drug-users in Britain came under severe criticism from the United Nations yesterday.

The UN's drug control agency said the easy ride given to stars by police, prosecutors and the courts sent out the wrong message to young people and generated cynicism over drug laws.

Professor Hamid Ghodse, the agency's spokesman, singled out Britain for allowing the rich and famous to use drugs freely and called for prosecutions.

"The authorities should ensure that public celebrities who violate drug laws are made accountable," he said.

The condemnation from the UN agency, the International Narcotic Control Board, follows huge levels of publicity given to the drug-fuelled exploits of celebrities.

They include model Kate Moss, who saw her career accelerate after she was pictured snorting cocaine.

Singer Pete Doherty has not been jailed despite a number of court appearances connected with heroin addiction and abuse of other drugs, and singer Amy Winehouse has won a string of awards despite her apparently heavy use of drugs including crack cocaine.

The agency, which polices the way in which countries stick to international drug conventions, has been heavily critical of the Government's failure to take a tough line in recent years.

Three years ago it said Labour was sending 'wrong signals' after downgrading the legal status of cannabis from class B to class C, which means that those caught with small quantities of the drug are unlikely to be arrested.

Yesterday, its report said that allowing celebrities to get away with drug crimes has a damaging effect on impressionable youngsters and undermines faith in the criminal justice system.

Professor Ghodse said: "They get more lenient responses by the judiciary and law enforcement, and that is regrettable.

"There should not be any difference between a celebrity who is breaking the law and non-celebrities.

"Not only does it give the wrong messages to young people, who are often quite impressionable, but the wider public become cynical about the responses to drug offenders.

"The authorities should ensure that public celebrities who violate drug laws are made accountable."

There was a further rebuke for Britain over the spread of opium poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan.

The Control Board said the land devoted to production of both drugs had continued to increase despite efforts by British troops to curb opium cultivation.

It warned that it has the right to recommend UN trade embargos for countries that export illicit drugs.

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It also said there should be stronger controls of imports into Afghanistan of acetic anhydride, a chemical used in the manufacture of heroin.

The agency reproduced previouslypublished Home Office data which showed that cocaine use in England and Wales rose from 2 per cent to 2.4 per cent of working age adults in 2005/06.

Britain remains one of the countries with the highest abuse of cocaine, along with Spain and Italy, the report said.

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While Professor Ghodse welcomed figures which indicated a continuing fall in cannabis use in the UK, he repeated concerns about a rise in the drug's strength.

Home Office data revealed earlier this year that powerful 'skunk' varieties accounted for just 15 per cent of cannabis seizures in 2002 but now make up between 70 per cent and 80 per cent.