HELP NEEDED FOR PRE-TEEN ADDICTS ONLY 10 YEARS OLD

A leading addiction expert warned of the heroin "disaster" hitting Britain
unless greater priority was given to drug treatment programmes.

Dr Amal Beaini, a consultant psychiatrist, appealed to the Government to
pour more resources into effective ways of weaning people off heroin.

Dr Beaini, a former NHS consultant who runs a group of detoxification
clinics, said he was shocked by a Home Office report which said Britain
could be on the brink of a new heroin epidemic involving children as young
as 10.

Most of the new heroin users were aged 18 to 35, but a significant number
were 14 to 16-year-olds. In some areas, children as young as 10 had been
trying the class A drug.

The report added that heroin use was spreading out of the inner cities
across the country because of cheap and easily available supplies, with
young people both smoking the drug and injecting it.

Dr Beaini said: "This is a horrifying new trend. Many of these youngsters
are fooled into thinking heroin is just another recreational drug, but it's
not. With heroin it's impossible just to experiment and people who do try
it can be hooked after six weeks.

"We cannot stand by and watch this tragedy unfold. A co-ordinated approach
is needed, and it must include publicly funded detoxification programmes
that work. I would like to see the Department of Health, the Home Office
and the Royal College of Psychiatrists working together in a joint venture
to prevent this disaster."

Where detoxification programmes are publicly funded they usually rely on
methods of switching addicts to the heroin substitute methadone.

But many patients cannot tolerate the withdrawal symptoms and drop out.

Dr Beaini has developed a non-methadone programme, called Detox 5, at three
clinics in Yorkshire and London which is said to avoid most of the "cold
turkey" symptoms.

Patients are given medication to tackle physical withdrawal symptoms such
as muscle cramps and diarrhoea while sedated. Then a non-addictive
opiate-blocking drug, naltrexone, is used to drive out the remaining
heroin. After five days, 99 per cent of patients leave the clinic with
their bodies clean of opiates, Dr Beaini says. Usually, however, the
UKP2,300 treatment has to be paid for privately.

Roger Howard, chief executive of the Standing Conference on Drug Abuse, a
charity which represents drug agencies, said: "We know that on average
people are having to wait 10 to 14 weeks to get access to treatment
programmes, and various parts of the country have 'hot spots'. Generally
most people would say the level of resources in the NHS and also through
community care have been woefully inadequate."

Mr Howard said there were signs that the Government was beginning to
realise the extent of the problem. The Comprehensive Spending Review had
promised an extra UKP188m for tackling drug misuse over a three-year
period, part of which would go to treatment programmes. But he warned:
"It's not before time and long overdue, but it will probably be insufficient."

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski