At a conference in Edinburgh, Mr Wood described primary school head teachers as crucially important people and said he had told them that, individually, they were more important in the fight than his entire drugs squad.

Tom Wood called for change

He argued that young people should have the knowledge to make good decisions because if drugs could not be eradicated, children had to be given the skills to survive.

They needed the confidence and ability to spot peer influence and resist it, to establish their beliefs and stick to them, according to Mr Wood.

The deputy chief constable said the message had to get through because society's future salvation lay in education.

He said the line might be held, supply might be checked, but in order to win the battle, it was demand that had to be addressed.

In September, Mr Wood told a conference that the fight against drugs was a vain one under the present system, saying that the only way to tackle drugs barons was to reduce demand for drugs.

In his speech, he criticised the "authorities" for being "ambivalent about dealing with alcohol".

Drugs have us "on the run"

He said the authorities were granting too many licences to sell alcohol and that licensing boards were being influenced by market forces.

He accused elected representatives of operating "a hands-off approach leaving us at the mercy of big business and vested interests".

Mr Wood described drugs as "the only significant factor to impact on crime since the industrial revolution" and said that it has "got us on the run".

The issue of how to tackle drugs misuse has never been more alive, with high-profile figures entering the debate.