SO the key players in a multi-million pound drugs gang have been jailed for nearly 70 years.

The substantial prison sentences were handed out to five men at Hove Crown Court yesterday.

It comes after undercover police officers exposed a £12.5 million conspiracy to deal heroin in Brighton, Hove and Eastbourne.

It’s a timely reminder of the huge problem facing society.

Drugs are rife across the city – and sadly across the country too.

Police will be pleased that they caught a big gang and presumably stopped the supply of hard drugs from one particular source.

Of course there are many other sources too.

Only this week we received a call from a man whose friend had become addicted to drugs.

He told us how she was funding her £80 a day habit by crime.

He also said that her addiction had caused a blood clot and she was waiting to find out if she needed to have a leg amputated.

That’s the real human cost of the drug problem.

When it comes to illegal drugs we all have a duty.

That duty is not to take them in the first place, and if you know friends or family who do then try to encourage them not to.

And if you know who the dealers are then we all have a responsibility to tell the police.

Too many lives are being affected by hard drugs.

One death is too many.

There have been far more than that as we all know.

We applaud the police for taking this gang off the streets. But they will know only too well there are other suppliers ready to take their place.