Primary school children to get drug lessons

Gordon Brown has called for all primary school children to be taught about the dangers of hard drugs, including crack cocaine and heroin.

The Prime Minister-to-be also rejected calls to reclassify cannabis. Instead he said the best way to tackle the drugs menace was better "rehabilitation and education".

That means giving lessons on drugs in primary as well as in secondary schools, he said. Mr Brown also announced plans to double the minimum number of hours of sport in schools from two hours a week to four hours.

He was speaking in London at the TUC-organised hustings for Labour's deputy leadership contest.

"We are going to have to start with primary schools if we are going to avoid not just crack cocaine and heroin but other new drugs that are flowing into this country at the moment," he said.

He would not look again at the classification of cannabis despite concerns about the damaging effects of stronger strains of the drug.