One arrested person in three is on hard drugs

Up to one person in three arrested on suspicion of crimes in Britain is on hard drugs, the Government will be told this week.

A damning report will blame heroin and cocaine addicts for high levels of offending, particularly shoplifting, as they steal to fund their habit.

The report also finds that the Government's war on drugs - and hard drugs in particular - has had no impact on drug use in the UK, which has the highest level of drug addiction and the second highest level of drug-related deaths in Europe.

The number of heroin addicts has risen from about 5,000 in 1975 to a present estimate of 281,000 in England alone. The cost to society of drug-related crime has spiralled to £13 billion a year.

The report, by two leading academics, used data from a previously unseen Home Office survey of 7,500 arrests, which shows that 18 per cent of those surveyed admitted taking heroin in the month before their arrest, while 15 per cent had taken crack cocaine. Some of the 46 per cent who took cannabis were also users of hard drugs.

A senior Scotland Yard officer described the latest figures as "a serious indicator of the connection between drugs and crime" and said that the real figures could be even higher.

"It is vital that we get cocaine and heroin addicts into treatment and reduce the appalling harm caused by drug-related crime," he said.