Many drug addicts commit crimes to feed their habits

Speaking at the Police Superintendents' Association annual conference in south Wales, Superintendent Kevin Morris told delegates that more rehabilition needs to be put in place by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

His message on Tuesday strikes a chord with Welsh officers dealing with rising drug abuse.

Recent estimates suggest there may be 10,000 drug addicts in Wales alone - and those waiting for rehabilitation treatment may be waiting for more than a year to join detox programmes.

In August, the assembly minister responsible for beating drug problems in Wales admitted that there were no targets for rehabilitating addicts.

And it was revealed that, across Wales, there were fewer than 30 beds for in-patient treatment of addicts.

Social Justice Minister Edwina Hart has asked for targets to be set

Social Justice Minister Edwina Hart came under attack from Conservative AM Alun Cairns, who said a lack of facts and figures showed the Welsh Assembly Government was paying lip service to the problem.

Ms Hart has asked local authority-based community safety partnerships to come up with targets by the autumn.

She said that no-one in the assembly government had ever denied the scale of the drug addiction problem in Wales.

A total of �18m has been budgeted for drug treatment over the next three years by the assembly government, and a further �11m has been set aside for a task force to deal with the social problems of addiction.

Mrs Hart has admitted that Wales needs many more in-patient beds and more detox units - particularly in the south Wales Valleys where, it is estimated, a drug addict dies every week.

Earlier this year it was revealed that the number of drug users dying while waiting for rehabilitation treatment was rising, despite the millions extra being set aside for care.

The true number of drug-related deaths cannot be calculated because there is no recognised way of recording them in Wales.