IT is heartening to see community leaders in East Lancashire and Christian and Muslim religious heads joining in a partnership to combat the drugs culture. Its launch at an Ewood Park, Blackburn, conference tonight is welcome proof that the people who lead illegal drugs empires will be taken on and, hopefully, beaten.

Drug abuse has become the biggest social evil of our time.

And if the major faiths cannot work together to combat it, there is little hope for any of us.

The vast majority of people in this country are victims of drugs in one way or another.

It is not just the addicts themselves who experience misery through drugs.

Thousands of people find themselves victims of crimes - burglaries, robberies, muggings, deception - which fuel the addiction.

If addiction figures fall there will be a corresponding reduction in the incidence of crime.

Religious leaders like Father Jim McCartney and Ilyas Foy see the tragedies of drug abuse on a daily basis.

That is why it is so encouraging to see men like them getting together to combat this evil.

But we all have a part to play.

We must not sit back, content to leave the drugs problem to the police, customs service, social services, churches and mosques.

They can, and should, give us a lead. They are at the sharp end.

But they need our support. Every law abiding citizen has a responsibility, whether it is passing on information about suspected drugs operations or encouraging youngsters to avoid this dreadful culture.

That is why the coming together of the faiths on this issue is so encouraging.

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