Revealed: Just how many people are using illegal drugs in the West Midlands

There are 22,500 regular heroin and cocaine users in the region with drug abuse costing public services £1.4 billion every year in health, care and police costs.

Users of the Class A substances responsible for half of crimes such as theft, robbery and burglary – equal to 43,000 crimes a year in the West Midlands with every heroin and cocaine user costing the region £60,000.

And a person is dying of drugs poisoning every three days in the region.

The findings are made in a bombshell report by the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner who said the country's current drugs policy is 'failing' and leading to more crime.

The dossier also reveals that 150,000 people used drugs in the West Midlands last year, of which 117,000 smoked cannabis.

Police chiefs will discuss the findings at a meeting at West Midlands Police HQ in Birmingham on Tuesday.

Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson said: "Despite the good work being done by many, collectively the policy is failing. This failure means the public put up with more crime, public services are put under more strain, and not enough is done to reduce the harm of those suffering from addiction.

"We have higher crime rates and there are more victims of crime because of the collective failure to tackle the issues surrounding drugs. In the West Midlands half of all burglary, theft, shoplifting and robbery is committed by people who use heroin, crack cocaine or powder cocaine regularly. This represents one in five crimes reported to West Midlands Police and tens of thousands of victims."

The detailed report said West Midlands Police is monitoring 84 organised crime gangs, of which 54 were 'significantly' involved in drugs with the illegal narcotics market worth £188m.

It also found that rough sleeping has tripled in the West Midlands and increased six-fold in Birmingham since 2010.

And it highlighted Government findings which said that jailing drug users was not a successful deterrent.

Mr Jamieson added: "Every three days in the West Midlands somebody dies from drug poisoning, with a death every four hours in England. The harm and misery that drugs are causing is unacceptable. This misery is also a source of profit for organised crime that needs stamping out.

"I want to see safer streets and make the West Midlands an area where people are less likely to be victims of crime. Drugs at the moment are costing the region an estimated £1.4 billion a year – money that could be supporting our schools, hospitals or funding police officers. This is the cost of failure.

"Before the end of the year I will host a wide-ranging summit to discuss practical solutions to tackle the issue of drugs, crime and the harm that they cause.

"I will report back in the new year with deliverable proposals that I think can reduce the crime and harm that results from drugs in the West Midlands."