editorial comment Well, he gets to meet Kate Moss. We can relate to that. Don't start with complicated legal principle, Mr. Hellawell. Still, paraphernalia wonders about the impact of "shoot-to-kill" on impressionable young people. Mustr ask Blair about that :)

Britain's former drugs tsar has criticised the country's most senior policeman for investigating allegations that supermodel Kate Moss used cocaine.

Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Ian Blair said that a decision about whether to charge Ms Moss would take into account her impact upon "impressionable young people".

But the government's former chief drugs adviser, Keith Hellawell said the model should not be treated any differently from any other suspected drugs user just because she was famous.

"It would be wrong to either let someone off because they are high-profile or prosecute them because they are high-profile," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"We ought to do what we do in every circumstance."

Mr Hellawell also criticised the "celebrity arrogance" and hypocrisy over the use of cocaine, insisting that the drug was known to be widely used.

"Why would you focus on Kate Moss when there are thousands of people in London who are involved in this type of behaviour?" he said.

"As soon as it's discovered and it can't be kept in the box then everybody comes out with this outrage," he said.

"I think those double standards are silly."

Ms Moss has lost various modelling contracts with fashion and cosmetic chains, including retailer H&M and Chanel, after pictures appeared in the Daily Mirror allegedly showing the model using cocaine with rock star boyfriend Pete Doherty.

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