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 UKP10
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 UKP10 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 UKP145m. 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 UKP300 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 UKP10 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 babby . 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 UKP100 a
gram to about UKP45 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 UKP10 "wraps", but they can be as little as
UKP5 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: "Rich O'Grady"