HEROIN USE SKYROCKETS AMONG U.K. CHILDREN

Up to 35,000 children under 16 in Britain are using heroin, according
to official figures.

The alarming scale of heroin abuse by children is revealed just a
week after an 11-year-old girl collapsed at her primary school desk
in Glasgow after smoking the drug.

Until now, figures on heroin addiction among children were based on
research collated from just two cities, Glasgow and Newcastle upon
Tyne, where 90 heroin addicts under 13 were discovered.

But new government figures, based on a nationwide survey, show that
the problem is much more widespread than originally thought. One
leading academic on child drug abuse said last night that the number
of schoolchildren using heroin could be as high as 60,000.

Doctors said the figure showed that heroin was a ticking "health time
bomb" and parents called for urgent action by the government.

Gaille McCann, a spokeswoman for Mothers Against Drugs, said: "The
government's own figures prove that the 11-year-old girl wasn't an
isolated case.