I want to see Lambeth Council take tough action to tackle the drugs trade in Streatham.

Labour councillors are discussing a number of proposals but I'm interested in your readers' views.

The trade in drugs sustains the gangs whose members carry guns and knives.

It is also linked to organised prostitution.

We have to act against the drugs trade if we want to make our streets safer.

With the new neighbourhood police teams, and extra Police Community Safety Officers that Labour has introduced over the past year, there are now more police on Streatham's streets than ever before.

That helps. But we have to do more to kill off the misguided, but widely held view, that Lambeth is somehow tolerant of drugs.

We are not. As with any trade, there are two sides to the drugs trade - supply and demand.

The supply comes from the drug-dealing gangs and the police are taking tough action against them, as we saw with last week's massive drugs raid in Kennington.

The demand comes from people who come on to our streets to buy their drugs.

The council can play a much stronger role here.

I would like to see the council name and shame people who are successfully prosecuted for buying drugs on our streets.

We could, for instance, publish their names on a website and in the local papers where they live, write to their employers, even put their pictures on posters in the Tube stations to deter other people coming to do the same thing.

We would need to have regard to those individuals with mental health or other vulnerabilities and to individual legal rights, but I believe only drastic action like this will turn round Lambeth's reputation as a place to buy drugs.

If we don't stop this evil trade then all the problems that come with it will never go away.

Before we take a decision on whether to go ahead with these proposals, I would welcome your readers' views on naming and shaming the drug tourists - from inside and outside Streatham - who encourage these problems on our streets.

COUNCILLOR STEVE REED Leader of Lambeth Council