WILTSHIRE Constabulary will maintain its hard line on drugs amid a national debate that a softer line may be taken on ecstasy.

Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Long said this week that there had been 30 drugs related deaths this year and the force was dedicated to reducing the toll.

He said: "Some of these deaths may have been deliberate overdosing but it indicates the significance of the problem. Some 65 per cent of people arrested for criminal offences test positive for illegal drugs. There is a clear correlation between between the misuse of drugs and other crime."

But Mr Long pointed out that Wiltshire police's role is not simply in arresting and punishing those who offend against drugs law.

He said: "Drug misuse is not a problem for the police alone and we are working closely with the drug alcohol action team with representatives of health and social services, including the probation service."

Mr Long said in some Wiltshire police divisions an arrest referral scheme operates, where offenders are offered counselling by a drug advisory worker.

Although cannabis is to be downgraded to a class C drug, Mr Long warned that it is still an offence to possess it and users can still be stopped, warned and the drug confiscated. Possessing it with intent to supply will still be an arrestable offence.

Mr Long said: "We want children to be able to go out on the streets of Wiltshire without the fear of being approached and sold drugs."

Mr Long pointed out that the decision on whether ecstasy was to be downgraded to a class B drug would rest with the Government, which would act on the medical evidence.

Supplying a class A drug carries a maxium sentence of life imprisonment, while the maxium sentence for supplying a class B drug was 14 years.

As part of the national drugs debate, the idea has been raised of 'shooting galleries', where heroin addicts could inject themselves without attracting police attention, as practised in some European countries.

It had been suggested this fitted with police policy of reducing harm done by drugs to addicts.

Mr Long said that he would be very concerned with anything taking place outside strict medical supervision.

He said: "In certain circumstances registered addicts could, under proper medical supervision, have drugs administered, but that is a matter for the health authority and not for us."

He said that, so far this year in Wiltshire, police officers have dealt with 700 drugs offences, though some individuals may have committed more than one. Some 130 of them involved supplying or possessing with intent to supply.

Mr Long said: "We are determined to prevent and reduce the number of incidents where people die through taking drugs. Young people, when they start taking drugs, become very vulnerable and our role is to protect them as much as it is to punish them."