HEROIN 'IS BEING USED BY 15-YEAR-OLDS'

TEENAGERS are starting to experiment with heroin at the age of 15 - two
years earlier than in the first epidemic of heroin abuse in the 1980s -
according to a new report.

Small towns and villages are no longer protected from the drug because
motorways and mobile phones make for easy delivery and possession.

The report found there was a mounting "hidden heroin" problem in small
cities and towns because local officials were unwilling to admit their
difficulties for fear of having their areas labelled as drug capitals. The
spread of heroin from London, Manchester and Glasgow to Bradford, Hull,
Bristol and small towns is also being accompanied by growing abuse among
more affluent youngsters, the study for the charity DrugScope said.

Evidence is also emerging that half the increase in heroin smoking among
the under 20s is by young Asians. Three quarters of the young people
studied had also tried crack cocaine.

The study of 86 heroin users aged 15 to 20 found that many had difficult
childhoods, with 85 of the youngsters routinely out on their own,
unsupervised, from the age of 13.