POLICE and social service groups are joining forces to tackle drug-driven crime in Darlington.

Criminals will be offered rehabilitation in a new approach, working on the basis that prevention is better than cure.

Some of the town's most active criminals are hooked on heroin, forcing them to commit numerous offences to feed their expensive habit.

Darlington's Community Safety Partnership, which brings together the Drug and Alcohol Action Team, police, youth justice, health and social care services, wants to tackle the issue.

Darlington Primary Care Trust has set aside £200,000 for an anti-drugs campaign, which will aim to stop young people starting to take drugs and help those who have.

Non-executive director of the trust, Coun Bill Dixon, said: "We know that many criminals are driven by their drug habits. If they need to find £500 a day that is a lot of crime.

"If we can stop just half of the most active criminals then the net affect is dramatic. But we can't do this without having the treatment packages for them."

Paul Davison, assistant director of public health, said: "Drugs blight people's lives, not just the people who take them but the victims of the crimes that inevitably follow on.

"In Darlington, we are taking the right approach with a host of law enforcement, health and social care agencies working together to stamp this problem out."

About 400 people in the town are undergoing treatment for addictions, most commonly heroin and methadone, with some amphetamines. Last year the trust spent about £100,000 on methadone alone.

But officials fear that is just the tip of the iceberg and want enforcement to be backed with an education campaign and treatment.

Coun Dixon said: "We are trying to get people out of crime and into treatment.

"The next step will be to get them out of treatment and into work to make them useful members of society, which is far better than locking them up."