MBELDOG BLOG

The Betty Ford Clinic is about to get some competition: Mitch Winehouse, the father of late soul star Amy Winehouse, has announced plans to set up a drug rehabilitation center in memory of the singer. The former London cabbie made the announcement shortly after meeting with UK politicans as he urged them to offer additional assistance to addicts in the form of government-funded rehab facilities.

Winehouse is pleading with politicos to reform drug rehab centers across the pond in memory of his famous daughter.

Winehouse, 27, was found dead at her North London home on July 23. Her death remains unexplained, with toxicology test results due later this month. The singer’s sultry vocal talents were often overshadowed by her addictions to drugs and alcohol. Her international hit, “Rehab,” detailed her substance abuse issues and reluctance to undergo treatment.

“I want to involve myself in things that would be important to Amy,” Winehouse said Tuesday. “This isn’t only important to me, this is important to our whole country. There’s hundreds of thousands of young people in situations today that could be avoided, and these are our future policemen, doctors and lawyers and solicitors, that we could help.”

He added: “There was one rehab centre for juveniles, Middlegate, which has just shut down because of a lack of funding.

“We were in the fortunate position of being able to fund Amy to go into private rehab, but this is about people who can’t afford it.”

While Mitch was leading the charge for rehab reform, Winehouse’s fans sent her back to the top of this week’s British album chart. Amy’s Grammy Award-winning 2006 album, Back to Black, which first reached No. 1 in the UK in 2007, returned to the charts last week, while Winehouse’s debut release, Frank, recharted at No. 5. A box set of the two albums entered the chart in tenth place.