A senior police officer tells the Welsh Assembly to take the high ground on measures to tackle drug abuse.

North Wales Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom said politicians had a "duty and right" to create a system to treat Wales' estimated 10,000 drug addicts.

Mr Brunstrom believes drugs are not the problem

Mr Brunstrom - who has admitted problems explaining the drugs issue to his own children - believes the assembly should take the initiative.

He told the Welsh Local Government Association conference in Llandudno that although half of all crime in Wales is committed by addicts, the logistical resources necessary to deal with the issue were not in place.

The chief constable insists that draconian arrests and jail terms for drug addicts are not the answer and he wants to see an organised programme of treatment provided.

"I seek to be constructive and controversial but I don't seek to attack the assembly," he told delegates.

"As a society we need to think beyond enforcement. Locking people up is not enough. There needs to be a seamless treatment service to follow that through.

North Wales Police

"The 10,000 seriously problematic drug users in Wales need to be treated once they are arrested.

"They are causing a tidal wave of acquisitive crime - thieving, mugging and burglaries."

He added: "They have no choice in this because they are physiologically addicted. If we just put them in prison for a few weeks and let them go again they go straight back to it.

"If we had joined up treatment we could change the offending nature of a number of these people."

The North Wales Police force area has six community psychiatric nurses at cell blocks to provide an immediate assessment and possible treatment for those who are arrested.

More than �200,000 has been invested by the police authority in partnership with the Probation Service and input from the Home Office.

Addiction-led crime

But Mr Brunstrom has highlighted the disparity in levels of treatment of drug addicts.

The compulsory treatment of addicts in prison was not backed up by additional treatment on the outside, he said.

This had the compound effect of addicts returning to crime to pay for their addiction.

Mr Brunstrom explained Wales' 10,000 drug addicts spent �2m a week feeding their habits.

In December last year, the police chief told North Wales Police Authority the Royal Commission should investigate the possibility of legalising some drugs.

He has previously compared the UK's drug policy to that of America's alcohol prohibition in the 1920s.