EXPLOSION IN CRACK COCAINE ABUSE

Fears over epidemic of 'the worst drug known to man' FRANK URQUHART

CRACK cocaine is set to rival heroin as the number one drug of choice for
teenagers in the north-east of Scotland, a drugs worker warned yesterday.

The highly addictive drug is being used as readily as ecstasy by young drug
users throughout the area, some as young as 16, as part of a cocktail of a
potentially deadly drugs.

The explosion in the use of crack cocaine could see the drug overtaking
heroin within two years, said Janice Jess, the co-ordinator of the Grampian
Addiction Problem Service.

The independent agencybs annual report reveals a 78 per cent increase in
the use of crack in the area, by far the largest rise in the use of an
illegal drug in the area.

Of the 1,200 clients who contacted the service looking for help during the
year, about 1,000 were using heroin. But just under 400 were also using
crack - the same number as those seeking help for ecstasy and amphetamine
abuse.

The statistics have been mirrored in the growing number of crack cocaine
seizures by Grampian Police.

Ms Jess said: "Crack cocaine is now the biggest problem that we face. Since
last year this agency has identified a growing number of persons who cite
that crack cocaine is their main drug of choice.

"Nearly all of those identified state that they are also using heroin to
act as a 'come down' from the stimulant effect ofcrack. And at the rate the
use of crack is increasing it could overtake heroin within just a couple of
years. That is a real cause for concern because crack is the worst drug
known to man. It is highly addictive."

She continued: "One of the most disturbing trends to emerge is the fact
that only nine per cent of the people we dealt with last year were using
only one drug. The rest are poly-users, using as many kinds of drugs as
they can get their hands on.

"What really alarms me are the types of drugs they are coming to me with
and the kinds of social behaviours they are getting into in order to met
that habit, including prostitution."

Some drug agency workers fear that crack dealers are deliberately targeting
young girls and forcing them into prostitution to feed their addiction.

Ms Jess said: "The number of young girls now working as prostitutes is
really disturbing. It's a tragedy that they are being exploited in this way
because they have a habit."

The agency's report cites the case history of an 18 year-old girl who has
maintained an intravenous drug habit for three years through prostitution.

She sought help for her addiction to crack cocaine, heroin, dihydrocodeine
and benzodiazapines and, according to the report "used crack, heroin and
methadone daily."

The report also highlights the alleged abuse of prescribed drugs, including
painkillers such as dihydracodeine and benzodiazapine, by heroin-addicted
fishermen or drug abusers "masquerading" as fishermen.

Ms Jess claimed: "It's a twin-edged problem. Fishermen with drug habits who
are going to sea are getting these drugs to help them with their withdrawal
symptoms. And that has major safety implications.

"Since all drugs affect the central nervous system and are therefore mind
altering substances, the dangers of consumption while engaged in operating
machinery at sea must be obvious.

"But we also have evidence of people, posing as fishermen, obtaining large
supplies of these drugs from their GPs which they are then selling on the
black market. We need the prescribing procedures to be tightened up so that
these drugs can only be taken at a chemist's shop."

Det Supt Donnie Struthers, the deputy head of Grampian CID, confirmed that
crack cocaine was a major and growing problem and appeared to peculiar in
its scale to the North east.

He said: "There is absolutely no doubt that the wealth in this area does
give us a different drugs scene than other Scottish forces.

"We have made a number of substantial cocaine and crack cocaine seizures
over the past year throughout the force area, mainly in Aberdeen. But we
are not as naive as to think that the drugs coming into Aberdeen do not
move from the city throughout the area.

"We have also had some seizures in Banff and Buchan - not massive seizures
but we would never under-estimate the scale of the potential problem."

However the crack cocaine epidemic seems to be peculiar to the north of
Scotland, according to evidence gathered by Scotland's two largest police
forces.

Detective Superintendent Barry Dougal, force drugs co-ordinator with
Strathclyde Police, said there had been seizures in the west of Scotland
but not on the same scale as in the Aberdeen area.

Mr Dougal said: "Cocaine has always described as the rich man's drug and
where they are finding it in north east there is plenty of money due to the
fishing industry. That is probably where its origins lie.

"We are finding it but not to the same degree or level of problem as they
have. "

The big fear amongst enforcement agencies, said Mr Dougal, was the
addictive nature of the drug.

A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said that while there was
anecdotal evidence of it being supplied in the Edinburgh area there had
been no seizures and no hard evidence that it was on the increase.