YOUNGSTERS TARGETED IN NEW HEROIN EPIDEMIC

Britain is on the edge of a new teenage heroin epidemic fed by dealers who
have ditched the narcotic's junkie image by marketing it as just another
cheap recreational drug like cannabis or ecstasy.

The rebranding of heroin in the past two years has been so successful that
the drug has reached epidemic proportions in smaller previously heroin-free
cities and towns such as Bristol, Hull and Luton, according to a Home
Office report published last night.

They escaped the worst ravages of the 1980s drug culture which terrorised
some inner-city areas of London, Manchester and Glasgow, where the report
says heroin abuse has stabilised.

But mounting heroin use among under 19s in new areas will spread to many
other medium-sized towns and cities this year and next, says the Police
Research Group study, based on the experience of Drug Action Teams across
England and Wales.

The study says that over a third of the teenagers now experimenting with
heroin are under 16, with those aged 14 to 25 most at risk.

It suggests that there are already 1,500 teenage heroin users in Bristol
alone and concludes that the country is already "in the early stages" of a
second heroin epidemic.

The report says dealers have redefined the popular image of heroin, taken
it out of the violent drug turf wars of the inner-city and aggressively
sold it specifically to a new, younger market.

The new users see little difference between this highly dangerous narcotic
and their more regular fare of less addictive dance drugs. Heroin has been
renamed brown, or browns, and sold in A35 and A310 wraps that can be
smoked in a spliff like cannabis. The drug's street price is the same as an
ecstasy tablet, amphetamine wrap or cannabis deal.

The dealers escape police action by vetting potential customers and using
pagers and mobile phones to offer them "deals on wheels" or "home delivery"
to avoid operating openly in pubs and clubs. Only bona fide customers are
given their pager or mobile phone numbers.

Some middle-class youths, particulary clubbers, use heroin as a "chill out"
drug, but most new users are unemployed under-achievers living on the
poorest estates of the affected towns and cities.

Most new users start by smoking heroin, but there is a significant move
towards injecting. "The 1990s has been dominated by the extensive
'recreational' use of drugs like cannabis, amphetamines and ecstasy,
particulary by youth populations. During the first half of the 1990s heroin
was eschewed by most young people as a highly addictive drug used only by
'junkies'. However, since around 1996 signs, indicators and rumours that
heroin is making a return have been building," says the study. "With 80 per
cent of area returns fairly confidently identifying new outbreaks within
their communities and providing such a consistent picture and profile of
new users, it is, unfortunately, reasonable to suggest that we are facing a
second heroin epidemic."

"These outbreaks are not currently occuring in the old heroin areas, such
as north-west England and London, nor in many rural areas but they are
colonising in most regions of England, particularly north-east England,
Yorkshire, West Midlands, Avon and south-west England.

"However heroin use is now occurring in completely new areas with no heroin
history and the spread pattern suggests many communities will see its
arrival during this year and next. Young people in these areas initially
have only limited understanding of heroin's potency and dependency
potential."

This new epidemic is being driven by major imports of cheap heroin from
south-west Asia brought via the Balkans and across Europe into Britain. A
fall in price, strong availability and high purity all indicate a sustained
supply route.

The authors say although the Government is committed to a major investment
in drug services, there is a dearth of services for young heroin users such
as needle exchanges, harm reduction and detoxification units, and the
prescribing of the heroin substitute, methadone.

Home Office Minister George Howarth said the findings were alarming. "This
report offers worrying evidence that heroin misuse is spreading in towns
where traditionally there has not been a major heroin history.

"The findings are therefore very significant for agencies like Drug Action
Teams which develop local drugs strategies and are best placed to identify
the problem."

Home Office Police Research Group, New Heroin Outbreaks Amongst Young
People In England and Wales, order by fax 0171 273 4001.