In the city which in 2007, recorded the youngest ever person at just 13 years of age, to be treated for heroin dependency, three people were arrested and charged with possession with intent to supply controlled drugs after police in the South Wales city adopted a new "back to basics" approach in dealing with local crime, by concentrating on just one street.
The campaign, perhaps unsuprisingly, has been hailed a "success" by South Wales Police, who say they carried out high visibility patrols which were concentrated on the traditionally problematic Woodfield Street area in Morriston, close to the DVLA head office and Morriston Hospital.
As a result police say they have seized £100,000 pounds worth of illicit drugs, although the actual breakdown of how much heroin versus how cannabis was seized, was not released, but its thought the majority of this amount manifested as cannabis plants grown locally and no heroin dealers were caught.
Patrols between 0900 GMT and 1300 GMT were made every day by neighbourhood officers and 118 people stopped and checked by patrolling officers.
Figures for the "post 1300hrs" period were not available.
Traders in the area are said to have been in full support of the crackdown, which was aimed specifically at drugs as well as petty crime including shoplifting and theft from vehicles.
Traditionally a persistent problem on the run up to Christmas and one not restricted to Woodfield Street.
According to Sgt. Dean Thomas who oversaw the operation "The level of crime recorded on Woodfield Street has fallen significantly, offences of violent crime, burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage have all been reduced."
"I hope this means the quality of life for residents and local businesses have been greatly improved and that people feel safer."
Offences recorded dropped from between 12-16 in Christmas week 2006 to only five for the whole month of December 2007 making, according to Acting Ch Insp Steve Jones "a huge difference to the area."
"The results seen here today are testament to the hard work portrayed by all involved."
A spokesman for South Wales based drug reform website "The Canna Zine" (http://cannazine.co.uk ) commented "its good news all round to see the police investigating new avenues for dealing with crime in South Wales, and particularly crime against society, crime against personal property and crime against small business.
Figures show, around two-thirds of all crimes commited, are as a direct result of a drug habit like heroin or alcohol addiction and unless you have suffered a dependency of some sort its hard to quantify how this compulsion can drive a person to act totally out of character".
"Drug addiction reprioritises human functions at their most basic level. The need for the next "fix" becomes more important to the addict, than eating, sleeping or life itself."
"Whilst we congratulate South Wales police on the obvious successes won as a result of this initiative, high level policing on just one street, or in just one area of one city is going to make absolutely no difference to the bigger "Welsh" picture overall."
"The fight against drugs cannot be won "street by street. Funding for such operations simply isn't available to the police, so any concentration in a particular area, inevitably leads to "exposures" elsewhere in the city."
"The drug addicts simply move to another area which will be sadly under-policed as a result of the thin blue line being pulled and stretched that much thinner."
Set up in February 2007, the Canna Zine is the first-in-the-world news agency dedicated to the global issues surrounding cannabis and hemp. To post your free cannabis or hemp press release, sign up for a free account on http://pr.cannazine.co.uk , post your news release, and the Canna Zine will do the rest.Canna Zine - more 'evolution' than revolution! A new era in postitive response communications.
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