CUMBRIA leads the way when it comes to addressing drug misuse.

The county boasts various anti-drugs agencies, a community-wide drugs programme run by Morecambe Bay Health Authority, and a visionary Chief Constable in Colin Phillips, who is leading the fight both locally and in the national arena.

The government-appointed drug tsar Keith Hellawell's much-publicised ten-year strategy on drugs is about to come into force. How it will work at grass roots level in Cumbria will be revealed at a special meeting on July 10, attended by Sean McCollum, leader of Cumbria's drugs action team.

Meanwhile, various conferences and seminars have taken place in Cumbria recently on the subject, highlighting the concern locally.

Reporter JEREMY CRADDOCK takes a look at Cumbria's drug scene and what is being done to tackle it.

''MY greatest fear is that young people see drug use as normal,'' admits Cumbria's police chief Colin Phillips.

''They think it's the normal thing to do on a Saturday night. They view it as socially acceptable and that's worrying for all of us as parents and responsible members of society,'' he said.

Mr Phillips is leading the fight against drugs both at a county level and on the national stage.

He spoke out about Cumbria's growing drug problem at a seminar in Windermere this month.

And last week at a high-profile national conference of chief police officers he hit out at the pop and fashion industry for glamourising drugs.

He won support from legendary record producer Sir George Martin and the editor of Vogue magazine Alexandra Shulman.

Previously the Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Mr Phillips is used to dealing with gun battles between rival drug gangs on Manchester's Moss Side. But he is not complacent about Cumbria's drug problem.

''It isn't perhaps at the sharp end, but we still have a drugs problem,'' he says.

''Last year Cumbria police arrested 1,464 people for drugs offences across six divisions. In the Kendal division 385 were arrested.

''Nearly half-a-million pounds worth of drugs were seized across the county last year, while 487 search warrants were exercised - 74 in the Kendal division, of which 63 involved the recovery of drugs.

''We stop and search people in the streets for drugs. A total of 540 stops were done in Kendal last year and 80 of them proved positive,'' he says.

Drugs of all kinds are available in Cumbria, says Mr Phillips, including cannabis, heroin, cocaine, LSD, ecstasy and anabolic steroids.

But law enforcement must be combined with education - effectively a multi-agency approach involving police, doctors, teachers and the whole community.

He does not believe a solution will come within the government's ten-year strategy: ''It's a much longer-term problem than that.''

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.