First-time users of cocaine and cannabis will avoid prosecution under a national blueprint being drawn up by police chiefs to treat it as a public health problem. People caught in possession of illegal drugs, including class A and B, for the first time would no longer be prosecuted but instead would be offered the chance to undergo education or treatment programmes. Police would take no further action if they agreed and the drug user would avoid a criminal record under the proposals being drawn up by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing. The individual could, however, be prosecuted if they failed to undergo education or treatment and were caught with drugs again. Fourteen of the 43 police forces in England and Wales including West Midlands, Thames Valley and Durham, rated one of the most successful in Britain already operate similar schemes but the new initiative aims to establish a nationally consistent approach. The move could put police and public health chiefs on a collision course with the Government which has proposed a tough new “three strikes and out” approach.