HEROIN ADDICT NUMBERS DISPUTED

A DEBATE was raging today over whether the number of heroin addicts in
Ballymena is heading towards the 1,000 mark.

Confusion surrounds the scale of the problem in the town dubbed
Northern Ireland's heroin capital - but everyone is agreed that the
drugs plague is growing.

Recent reports that there are 1,500 heroin addicts in Ballymena, which
has a population of around 30,000, have been described as excessive by
the health authorities, a frontline drugs worker and the town's deputy
mayor.

The Northern Drugs Co-Ordination Team was unable to give precise
up-to-date figures but an official health source said: "Undoubtedly
there has been a rise in the numbers of people using heroin, but our
information would tell us that it is now between 300-500 and certainly
not 1,500."