POLICE are using shocking images of a heroin user to persuade people to grass up drug dealers in Swindon.

The hard-hitting campaign, which graphically warns of the effects of drug abuse, will be launched on Monday.

Posters are going up across town showing the face of an addict changing as she falls further into the grip of heroin.

It is based on a real drug user who agreed for her face to be used in a bid to stop others suffering a similar fate.

She is shown changing from a healthy young woman into a scrawny hag.

Police are using the images to promote the Together Action Line a new crackdown on dealers.

The wording reads: "Don't Let Drug Dealers Change the Face of Your Neighbour-hood," and the campaign forms part of the Adver-backed It's Your Call drive to clean up Swindon.

Posters will go up on bus shelters and in bars and pubs and promotional beer mats have also been created.

It is one of 25 areas around the country running the campaign.

Cheri Wright, who heads Swindon's crime and disorder unit, is running the line.

The aim of the posters, she said, is to link the effect of drugs on individuals with the corrosion of neighbourhoods.

"These dramatic images are, sadly, a reality and portray the terrible effects of using Class A drugs," she said.

"We have done the beer mat campaign because we want to reach a wide range of people.

"The pictures will hopefully prevent people taking drugs in the first place."

Information from callers will be key to cracking drug problems, she said.

"People may hold vital information that could help the police stop drug dealers operating in their area," she said.

Information could also be used to close down more crackhouses.

New powers have been used to shut down two properties in the town since February.

The closures were carried out as part of Operation Crackdown, which ran from the start of the year to the end of last month.

Police carried out 23 raids and made 21 arrests.

Superintendent Richard Rowland, of Swindon police, urged people to call.

"Drug dealers target people from our neighbourhoods in order to get them to take drugs, motivated only by their own greed and with no concern for the well-being of anybody else," he said.

"We will not tolerate this and with the help of information from the community, will relentlessly target these heartless criminals."

The Swindon Drugs Hotline, which has helped jail several dealers in the last two years, will continue to operate.

Tamash Lal