This week the Evening Press has highlighted the other York, the York not seen by many tourists and residents. Our Troubled Streets series has examined some of the real problems of crime, drugs and homelessness facing the city, and considered some of the possible solutions.

Some of these ideas are radical. On Tuesday York solicitor Craig Robertson called for the legalisation of heroin. He argued that if the drug were available on prescription, crime in the city could be cut by half. Addicts, meanwhile, would no longer risk their lives by taking potentially adulterated doses of the drug.

Tonight another controversial change is put forward. The creation of a "consumption room", where addicts could inject themselves, has a greater chance of becoming a reality than the decriminalisation of heroin.

Supporters of the move say it has several benefits. It would lead to fewer people injecting themselves in public, and also cut the number of used needles littering our streets. Addicts would use clean syringes while medical help was on hand.

Whether York is ready for what has been called a "shooting gallery" is uncertain. Such centres have been pioneered in Holland and Germany, but their cultures are different to ours; more research is needed before we take this far-reaching step.

There is no doubt that action of some sort is needed. Heroin is cheaper and more available than ever. Evidence of that fact is everywhere.

In recent years, three people have died in public and shop toilets in York. And, as the shocking pictures in tonight's paper show, drug detritus is all around us. Used needles pose a real health hazard, and they have been found on streets, playing fields and even school playgrounds.

Drugs play a major part in the cycle of crime and despair that blights too many lives in this city. The young people we interviewed this week feel they have no future; it is a sense of hopelessness that their children will inherit, unless we can do something about it.

Fortunately, many people are doing something about it. Our Troubled Streets series not only brought these issues into focus, it also revealed the good work already underway to tackle the drugs menace, to help the young disaffected, and to make the anti-social minority pay the consequences. But more, much more, needs to be done.

As long as these problems exist, the Evening Press will address them. Only by public debate can we make progress. We make no apologies for throwing light on York's darker side.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.