THE REPORT today claiming that the government's 10 year strategy on drugs has had a very limited impact will not surprise those in the front line of dealing with the consequences.

For every drug dealer taken off the streets there is always another ready and willing to take their place, so lucrative is the criminal drugs trade.

It is clear that current policies are failing to stem the tide of drug addiction and its legacy of human misery and associated crime.

It is always interesting to consider the view, for example that which used to be put forward by former chief constable Francis Wilkinson, who called for the legalisation of drgus.

We are not yet convinced this is necessarily the right way forward but it is about time legalisation was considered seriously, perhaps by a Royal Commission.

Mr Wilkinson spent years on the front line and his view is that the only way to tackle the problem is to take away the criminality.

Drug addiction could then be supervised under medical control.

Such a move could potentially cut crime considerably as there is absolutely no doubt that the majority of crime centres around drugs.

It is clear that the drug problem is getting worse and worse.

Anybody who has doubts about the wisdom of a medical solution to the drug problems should go and visit Kaleidoscope in Newport to see the work that they are doing trying to give addicts their lives back.

We do not want in any way to be soft on crime but a major debate needs to be had into the pros and cons of legalising drugs so the problem can be dealt with professionally and taken out of the realm of crime.