I have been a heroin addict over half my life and can assure superintendent Graham Cox that the general public giving me a few quid (or not) had absolutely nothing to do with me either sustaining or relinquishing my habit. Certainly the public are not "unwittingly funding the drugs trade."

I am 34, and have been clean for two years, run my own business, pay taxes, rent and so on. I am only too aware the reasons for addiction are deep and complex and the only way to deal with them is with professional help, support, love and care from family and friends.

Drug addicts will obtain drugs by any means possible and superintendent Cox is wrong if he really believes stopping giving spare change to beggars will make them simply gather their blankets and say: "Oh well, no more drugs for me." Given my 15 years of experience, an increase in theft, fraud, mugging and burglary is far more likely.

While the opium poppy still grows in Afghanistan and the illegal drugs trade still turns over more money per year worldwide than the oil industry, I would suggest to Mr Cox and the Brighton drugs squad that a better approach would be to try to intercept the kilos of heroin arriving into Brighton every day via the A23.

-Ash Jones, Chatham Place, Brighton