HEROIN: ABUSERS START AT 15

Survey Warns Of New Outbreak Among Tens Of Thousands Of Teenagers In Smaller
Towns And Cities

The average age at which teenagers begin experimenting with heroin has
fallen to only 15, two years younger than in the late 1980s, according to
new research for a leading drugs charity published last night.

The Department of Health - funded study warns that smaller cities and towns,
which have escaped in the past, now find themselves facing a new "heroin
outbreak" involving tens of thousands of teenagers who are also beginning to
use crack cocaine in significant numbers.

The study, Hidden Heroin Users, by Manchester University researchers for
DrugScope, says that the increasingly early age of onset of heroin abuse at
around 15 is unprecedented and has fallen significantly from the 17 to 18
average in the late 1980s when the inner cities of Glasgow, London,
Manchester and Liverpool were experiencing a boom in heroin abuse.

The survey by Roy Egginton and Professor Howard Parker involved in-depth
interviews with 86 young people between 15 and 20 at four undisclosed
locations in England. It reveals that hard-drug addiction is spreading
rapidly in towns and cities left untouched by previous heroin epidemics. Now
it is hitting places such as Bradford, Bristol and Hull where there are
fewer older heroin addicts as a reminder to teenagers not to get involved.

The study found that in the smaller cities and towns between 5% and 20% of
15-year-olds had been offered heroin, while a quarter said they could easily
get the drug. Only a minority of those tempted to experiment came from
damaged family backgrounds, and many were from comfortable, middle-class
families.

"Those involved were routinely out and about unsupervised from the age of
13. Their parents did not know where they were. They were early smokers and
drinkers and moved into a phase of florid drugs experimentation. At 15 they
initiated on heroin, two years younger than in the 1980s heroin epidemic,"
the study says.

Alarmingly young teenagers no longer regard heroin as the kind of stigma
that prevented previous generations experimenting on a large scale. Most try
heroin for the first time at a friend's house and begin by smoking it. Most
abusers move rapidly to weekly and then daily use.

"These heroin users were initially very naive and ill-informed about heroin.
They did not understand its subtle potency and addictiveness and had little
idea where a heroin career might take them. As habits grow, injecting
becomes routine, health and self-esteem suffer and [multiple] drug use looms
involving cannabis, tranquillisers, methadone and crack cocaine," the report
says.

It quotes the regrets of one user who had been smoking heroin for three
years: "Knowing the consequences. Making the connection between browns and
heroin. I was told it was like powdered cannabis."

But what worried the researchers even more was that three-quarters of those
interviewed said they had tried crack cocaine and one-third said they had
used it in the past month. To fund their "poly drug" habit - on average with
a cost of more than UKP160 a week - these teenagers are turning to
shoplifting, theft and in some cases prostitution.

The researchers say the fact that heroin is finding its way into smaller
cities and towns left untouched by previous outbreaks, the broader social
profile of those involved, and their unprecedented youth means that
government treatment and drug services do not reach them. Many such
teenagers are unlikely to go anywhere near treatment services, and their
special drug language, with its talk of "gauching, rattling, clucking,
digging and pins", finds no reflection in any published outlet.

Many distrust adult authority and are too insecure and immature to see the
benefit of seeking help.

The combination of mobile phones and fast roads has made it much easier for
dealers to supply even remote areas, and this has made it impossible to
determine accurately the number of teenage users across Britain.

Roger Howard, chief executive of DrugScope, said the study provided a
crucial insight into the world of teenage heroin users, many of whom were
shockingly young. "It is particularly worrying that many of the youngsters
interviewed had no idea of the potency of heroin before they tried it, and
that three-quarters of them have already used crack cocaine. We surely have
a duty as a society to find new ways of communicating with such youngsters
at an early stage - be that through mentoring schemes, more targeted schools
drug education, or much more outreach work in local communities."