When a police officer in Sussex during the Nineties, I brought the facts of "out of control drug deaths" to the attention of the Press on a number of occasions, once prompted by the coroner at Lewes who, at the time, was concerned about such deaths.

I was then the longest-serving Drug Squad officer in the force and had connections with the drug support agencies in the county. I took it upon myself to try to alert the community to these concerns.

I was verbally warned by a superintendent that I should not highlight these facts and was effectively gagged.

In 1995, there had been five overdoses coming to the coroner's notice in a short period.

A purer strain of heroin was available on the streets so users were dying because they were unable to tolerate the higher concentration.

I was angered by this gagging order by so-called caring senior police officers in Sussex. They were trying to keep a lid on it, did not want to carry out a criminal investigation and looked upon each as "just another death".

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