Profits seized from convicted drugs barons are to be ploughed back into anti-drugs programmes, as part of the government's new strategy against the misuse of illegal substances.

To cheers from MPs, Leader of the Commons Ann Taylor said: "It is right that the profits from this evil trade should go back into tackling the problems it generates."

Mrs Taylor was unveiling the document drawn up by "drugs tsar" Keith Hellawell, to combat drug abuse and outlined in the White Paper: Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain.

The plan has four main aims: to help young people resist drug misuse; to protect communities from drug-related, anti-social and criminal behaviour; to enable people with drug problems to overcome them and to stifle the availability of illegal drugs.

The BBC's Kim Catcheside reports on drugs education at a primary school in north London (3'33")

The work of more than 100 drug action teams and a dozen regional drug prevention initiatives is expected to be streamlined to ensure the more effective use of the Government's £500 million-a-year anti-drugs spending.

The new proposals, called Tackling Drugs to Make a Better Britain, come as the charity Turning Point, which works with addicts, reports that drug abuse is soaring among the young.

The charity says the number of people using Methadone, an opiate prescribed to wean addicts off heroin, has doubled in 12 months.

It reports that the number of ecstasy users passing through its doors has increased by 50%, while the number of crack cocaine addicts seeking help has risen by 37%.

The proportion of women suffering the effects of drug abuse has also grown, rising to one in three of the users seeking help.

But the Home Secretary Jack Straw has denied Britain is losing the war against narcotics.

The Chief Executive of the Standing Conference on Drug Abuse, Roger Howard, talks to BBC Radio 4's Today Programme (4'03")

He said there was evidence that substance abuse among young people was stabilising or even beginning to fall.

The new strategy is revealed as 13 people were arrested in connection with the seizure in Hertfordshire of cocaine and cannabis worth £10m.

A warehouse allegedly used as a nationwide drugs distribution centre was raided by customs officers who say they have broken an international smuggling ring.

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