AS Swindon Council launches its children's drug programme, plenty of people across the borough will be shocked to learn that we have addicts as young as 13.

Let nobody accuse those people of naivety, though. Such widespread addiction is still generally associated only with our big cities, and even then only on a limited scale.

Unfortunately, the dreadful nature of the drugs trade means markets must expand not only geographically but also across ever more strata of society.

The realisation that our children are being targeted in such a way is a horror but a valuable horror.

Our council should be congratulated not only for confronting us with this unpalatable truth but also for taking positive steps to do something about it.

For our own part, the rest of us should think of those blighted young lives the next time we are tempted not to lift the phone and "get involved" when we suspect that there are dealers among us.