YET again the UK comes near the top of a league table for all the wrong reasons.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime the number of drug-related deaths in the United Kingdom is among the highest the world.

In 2008, the year covered by the figures released yesterday, drugs were the primary cause of death in 2,278 cases.

That is a shocking number and also the highest for any country in west or central Europe.

This is proof perhaps that victory in the war on drugs remains as elusive as ever but also that the battle must be fought on so many fronts.

While local policing operations can and do score successes in taking dealers and drugs off the streets, the global nature of the drug trade makes it a much more complex issue.

Trying to keep drugs off our streets in the first place now necessarily involves border agencies, and international co-operation.

But while that is a necessary part of the fight and one which has to take on an evolving and efficient global trade, we should perhaps also be asking why in the UK we appear to have a propensity for addiction, which is not matched by our European neighbours.

And that might mean politicians have to consider the difficult question of decriminalising at least some drugs and whether this would bring a measure of control.