The shocking statistic about drugs is that more than one person a week in Brighton and Hove dies from them.

This death rate is higher than that in other major cities such as London, Manchester and Birmingham, which illustrates the scale of the problem.

Official estimates show there are about 2,000 people injecting themselves with drugs in the city. The true figure is almost certainly much higher.

Any of these addicts could end up as another statistic in the sad tally of drug deaths in Brighton and Hove.

Plenty of help is being offered to drug addicts who want to be weaned off their habit but there are hundreds more whose problem is hidden.

Some of them are in such a state they are probably not capable of dragging themselves anywhere for help.

Drug misuse is one of the biggest social problems facing the city and is particularly hard to tackle because of difficulty in finding the addicts.

Yet they are causing huge misery, not just to themselves but to their partners and those whom they rob to fuel their habit.

Everything possible needs to be done to help get these people off the drugs and see if they can be rehabilitated.

In the meantime, the search goes on for the pushers, often addicts themselves, who are causing human misery on such a large scale.