ONE IN 50 INJECTS DRUGS, RESEARCH FINDS

The government has been urged to step up its efforts to tackle drug
use after research showed levels of use in English cities to be higher
than previously thought.

A study published today revealed that as many as one in 50 young
people and adults in three major English cities were injecting drugs.

This statistic is higher than previous Home Office figures, which
estimated that in 2001, 0.3% of the population between 15 and 64 years
old were injecting drug users.

Using information from sources including drug treatment centres and
syringe exchange schemes between 2000-01, researchers from Imperial
College London and Liverpool John Moores University studied levels of
drug use in London, Liverpool and Brighton.

They discovered that the proportion of adults and young people between
15 and 44 who were injecting drugs was 2% in Brighton, 1.5% in
Liverpool and 1.2% in London.

Based on the rates for each city, the researchers said that these
figures equated to between 10 and 18 patients in a typical general
practice list of 2,000 patients, with 900 aged 15 to 44.

"Thus, in Brighton, Liverpool and London the prevalence of injecting
drug use among young adults is as common as diabetes and greater than
many other chronic conditions such as epilepsy or psychosis," the
researchers said.

The study also found injecting drug-users (IDUs) were more likely to
die of their habit in Brighton. Overall, around 1% of IDUs die from an
overdose each year, but in Brighton this rate was twice as high.

The government wants to increase the number of problem drug users in
treatment programmes in coming years, but researchers said the figures
on which the target was based were flawed and more effort was needed
to reach the targets.

"The government aims to double the number of problem drug users in
treatment," the authors said. "In the three sites [looked at in the
study], there is ample opportunity for this [drug treatment], given
that less than one in four IDUs are in receipt of treatment at any one
time. Unfortunately, the data on the numbers in treatment were of poor
quality and requires urgent improvement."

The research also revealed a shortage of sterile needles in each of
the cities studied. Around 5 million syringes were distributed each
year in London, 400,000 in Brighton and 560,000 in Liverpool.

This works out at 190 syringes per person in Brighton and Liverpool -
one used every two days - and slightly less in London at about one
used every 2.5 days.

"Given that users inject on average twice a day, this would suggest
that current levels of activity provide sterile equipment for
approximately 27% of all injections by users in Brighton and Liverpool
and 20% in London," the researchers said, adding that this low take-up
increased the risk of diseases being spread.