THE police and crime commissioners introduced by David Cameron’s Government have a problem.

In the main, they have such low profiles that they are close to being anonymous.

How many people could name their local commissioner in a pub quiz? We suspect it wouldn’t be many.

In calling for the decriminalisation of drugs, County Durham and Darlington’s PCC, Ron Hogg, is likely to make himself better known than most of his peers.

It is a controversial call – a gamble, which politicians have been afraid to take for fear of a backlash at the polls.

Mr Cameron was vociferous in supporting drug reform while in opposition but he has not been nearly so bold since he became Prime Minister.

Now, we have a crime commissioner calling for part of Britain to be a test-bed for reform which would see addicts treated in “consumption rooms” as people suffering from a recognised illness, rather than locked up in prisons without medical help.

There is surely enough evidence to at least support an expansion of the local experiments which have already taken place.

Let County Durham and Darlington really lead the way on a policy which treats addicts as victims of an serious illness, but brings the full force of the law down on the parasitic, organised criminals who supply drugs on the streets.

If it is successful, Mr Hogg will have won his gamble and his profile will soar. If it fails, he will have lost and he will be roundly condemned for being the crime commissioner who was soft on drugs.

In the meantime, we are prepared to at least support his courage for trying to do something about a strategy which has so far been a spectacular failure.