EPIDEMIC OF HEROIN SWEEPS BRITAIN

A NEW heroin epidemic is sweeping into many of Britain's towns and cities as
dealers target increasingly young teenagers for their trade, a major Home
Office study has discovered.

Record numbers of dealers are selling heroin in low cost 10BPD packages in
regions that had previously escaped the worst ravages of the drug.

The disturbing findings of the report, which will be published in the next
few weeks, have prompted the Government to plan a major anti- heroin
campaign aimed at young users.

The study, details of which have been obtained by The Independent, has
identified "footprint" towns and cities where there are new heroin
"outbreaks" and where use among young people is reaching epidemic levels.

Other findings in the report New Heroin Outbreaks Amongst Young People in
England and Wales include:

Dealers are marketing heroin or "brown" aggressively by offering cut price
drugs and affordable A310 deals.

Some is being given away free to encourage a habit.

The core group are 15 to 20- year-olds who are typically from poor, broken
families with education problems.

Many young people are unaware of the dangers of heroin and start off smoking
it in the belief that they will not become hooked.

A far wider range of people are taking the drug, including school pupils and
people living on outlying housing estates.

Keith Hellawell, the UK Drugs Co-Ordinator, known as the country's drug
Tsar, told The Independent: "The report is saying that the problem is
greater than we imagined.

"It confirms that heroin is becoming the drug of first choice for young people."

He added: "We have a very good chance of nipping any epidemic in the bud and
controlling it."

"A growing number of users are not from disadvantaged backgrounds and is
moving into hitherto stable areas," he said.

Researchers carried out a survey of 200 police and drug action teams in
England and Wales last year.

They identified a new pattern for the distribution and use of heroin.

The users' average age has dropped from 17-25 to 14-25.

There are reports of a significant number of 14 to 16- year old- heroin
users, but the average aged is about 18. In Bristol, for example, there are
an estimated 1,500 people aged under 19 taking heroin.

Many of the younger generation who missed the last epidemic in the 1980s are
now unaware of the side effects of heroin and believe other substances, such
as ecstasy, are more addictive.

They also believe smoking is a "healthier" option than injecting.

Bradford, Hull and Bristol were identified as "heroin footprint" cities
where the drug had previously only been available in very small amounts but
was now awash with the substance.

There have also been reports of heroin in Barnsley, south Leeds and Dewsbury
in West Yorkshire.

Agencies in the South East, Sussex, Surrey and Wales, have also reported
significant problems.

Heroin is believed to be far more widespread than the 1980's epidemic which
was focused on inner city estates in large metropolitan cities.

The traditional "smack" cities such as Liverpool, London, Manchester, and
Glasgow still have a big heroin problem but the drug scene has remained stable.

The report also identifies a gap in the policing of cross police force
borders which is allowing dealers to distribute their goods nationally.

Among the measures being considered by the Home Office are greater funding
for treatment centres and an advertising and education campaign aimed at
schools, teenagers and people in their early 20s.

The report's author, Professor Howard Parker, of Manchester University, one
of the country's leading drug experts, said: "I'm concerned about the spread
of heroin into the youth population and regard the report as a significant
contribution to trying to map this problem.

"But I cannot discuss the details until the report has been published."

There are around 40,000 known heroin addicts in Britain but experts suspect
the total could be five times higher.

In April Customs officers announced that they recovered 1.7 tons of heroin
last year with a street value of more than A3145m. That was an increase of
135 per cent on 1996.

About 80 per cent of the heroin seized is sent from Turkey.

It is produced in Afghanistan and Pakistan and is then trafficked through
the Balkans from where it goes onwards to key markets in western Europe.

'Pushers offer it free'

The story of Timmy's young life reads like a tragic novel. He is 19 years
old and in two years has slipped from a fun-loving teenager, who
occasionally smoked cannabis, to a heroin addict who funds his habit by
selling his body for sex.

He hates his condition and is trying to break out of the downward cycle with
a detoxification programme in Bristol. He fidgets constantly and his eyes
are glazed as he tells his story.

At the age of 17 his cousin, a year older, offered him a smoke of heroin. "I
was sick at first, but the buzz was nice. He told me if I tried it again I
wouldn't feel so sick. The more I took the more I wanted."

For the first year he smoked the heroin by "chasing it" - burning it on a
piece of silver foil - but found he needed more and more to get the same
buzz. He switched to injecting when he discovered a tiny amount fired
directly into his blood stream had a much more powerful effect. But the dose
gradually rose, until he was injecting a gram a day and spending about
300BPD a week.

To pay for his addiction he went shoplifting, but could not earn enough
money so turned to prostitution. "I work on the streets at the moment and in
the pubs," he said with self-loathing.

"All my mates do heroin. There's even a group of kids at school, aged from
about 14 to 16, who are smoking it. Everyone I know moves from smoking it to
injecting it.

"In Bristol you get pushers looking to get people onto heroin - they just go
up to kids and offer them it for 10BPD or a free trial. They know once
they're hooked they'll be back for more.

"My brother is a year older and has never touched heroin, just a bit of weed
cannabis. I look at him and he has got a job and qualifications, he's got a
flat, a misses and a baby. That could have been me, I could have had all that."

'It's everywhere now'

Sophie has been taking heroin for 17 years. She used to inject it but her
veins became so broken she turned to smoking.

Since she started on heroin the price has dropped from about 100BPD a gram
to about 45BPD in Bristol where she lives.

To pay for her regular fixes she would go on shop-lifting sprees, which
could net her more than a thousand pounds a week. The stolen goods were sold
to "punters" who pay one-third of the face value.

"Heroin is always just a phone call away. I used to have to travel around
the country looking for it, but it's everywhere now, I just call a dealer
and he will drop it off in about 15 minutes," she said.

Sophie, 38, says the dealers sometimes give it to users to sell on their
behalf, often in 10 "wraps", but they can be as little as 35BPD for about
one-third of a gram.

"Because people are frightened of getting hepatitis or Aids, a lot of them
are smoking it now," she explained. They smoke it in pipes, on foil, and
very occasionally mixed with tobacco and cannabis.

One of her four children became addicted to heroin at the age of 17 but
managed to kick the after three years.

Sophie has finally managed to quit heroin and has been clean for 10 months,
but has discovered she has contracted chronic hepatitis C from injecting.

'Kids aren't afraid'

Tom, now 26, remembers the heroin epidemic of the Eighties. "It used to be
very hush-hush. No one would mention it and it was often hard to get hold
of. The difference is that the kids these days are not frightened of it.
Really young kids - 13- and 14-year-olds are taking it.

"Some of the young people have jobs - I know people who work as court clerks
who are taking heroin - others just go out nicking. It's so easy to get hold
of, there's a door-to-door service available at the end of a phone."

Five months ago, Tom switched from heroin to the chemical substitute,
methadone, in an attempt to wean himself off the drug.

The three drug users, whose names have been changed, are being helped by the
Bristol Drugs Project.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett