Police are referring some addicts for immediate treatment

Currently some addicts in the city are having to wait for more than 18 months to get help.

Social exclusion minister Barbara Roche said that Plymouth Drugs Action Team was planning for a maximum of three weeks' waiting time by April next year - in line with national targets.

This would be achieved with extra funding and improved facilities.

She said: "It is not acceptable for vulnerable people to have to wait months and in some cases, years to access treatment."

Plymouth's senior judge last month warned that the city was facing a drug-fuelled crime wave.

Officials pressed

Judge William Taylor is backing a revolutionary new scheme to target drug users before they offend.

The scheme, backed by police and drugs agencies, means that police can refer known addicts for immediate drugs treatment.

The scheme has �500,000 of funding from existing sources and, after a pilot project, is due to begin full time later this year.

But drugs workers say that the scheme requires �750,000 a year to be effective.

Judge Taylor has led the campaign for more funds and has met officials in Downing Street to press the case.

Keith Halsey, of Plymouth community safety partnership, said: "Eighty per cent of acquisitive crime is down to drugs use.

"This scheme is intended to break the cycle of drugs and crime."