DIRECTLY or indirectly we shall all benefit from the £133,000 Home Office grant allocated to Swindon's Drug Action Team.

A large percentage of the crimes against the town's shops and ordinary Swindon people are committed by addicts who are desperate for money to feed their habit.

It is a horrifying fact that according to police officers' 2,500 heroin and crack users between them steal around £50,000 every day to support their addiction.

The problem is aggravated by the fact that countless offenders who have been referred to drug treatment programmes while in prison drift back to their old way of life after they are released.

Without homes, jobs and a support network they have little chance of remaining clean.

So news that the Drug Action Team can now appoint a specialist worker to help them reintegrate into the ordinary community is very welcome.

This money is not a sign of softness towards drug addicts. It recognises the fact that countless people, particularly young people, who are stupid enough to experiment with hard drugs because of waywardness or weakness end up losing control of their own lives.

If the Home Office grant helps to lessen the human wreckage for which those drugs are responsible it will be £133,000 well spent.