IT IS a very welcome development this week to see the success of a crackdown by local police on drug dealers. Six drugs raids have been carried out over the past week and have resulted in the arrests of suspected dealers and the seizure of illegal substances.

The raids in the Barnstaple and Bideford area were all part of Operation DISTURB, which stands for Drugs Initiative Systematically Tackling Users Retailers and Buyers.

There has sometimes been the perception in recent times that those who deal in certain types of drugs are ignored when it comes to law enforcement or that their activities are "tolerated".

That should never be the case, of course. The law is the law, after all, and once we start to cherry pick at which elements of it are enforceable or not then that way anarchy lies.

North Devon, being one of the safest parts of the country in which to live, cannot be described as having a major drugs problem on the scale of more prominent urban settings.

But the arrests and seizures in the past week do demonstrate that there is a problem of some degree and so therefore if it is not tackled and enforced with regularity then it will only grow unchecked.

And that then represents a further menace to our peaceful society, not only with the influx of more drugs and their harmful effects, but also with the knock-on crime such as theft and burglary, which can often be traced back to those with a drugs problem.

The

Journal

therefore very much welcomes the actions of the police and praises them for the effectiveness of the operation and the success it has appeared to achieve.

Almost as powerful as the arrests and the seizure of illegal substances is the message such an operation sends out — namely that drug dealing cannot and will not be tolerated in North Devon.