DRUGS STUDY FINDS CHILDREN AGED 11 ON HEROIN AND CRACK

Children as young as 11 are experimenting with hard drugs such as crack
cocaine and heroin, according to a new study.

There are at least 50 children under 16 being treated for addiction to
drugs in clinics in Merseyside and Cheshire. In parts of the Wirral, where
the average age of first users of heroin is 19.8 years, children form 10%
of new clients at drug treatment clinics.

The Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University found that
during the past three years 100 children in the region had been treated for
addiction to drugs, according to the study.

Crack cocaine use was firmly established in central Merseyside and was
spreading to other parts of the county and to Cheshire, the study of 9,000
drug addicts in treatment in the region found. Around 14% of clients who
reported to drugs services in 1990 were still addicted 11 years later.

Since 1990, the average age of people arrested by Merseyside police for
drugs offences has fallen from 25 to 23.

The study, 10 Years of Drug Use Epidemiology in Merseyside and Cheshire,
says it is estimated that the true number of drug addicts is closer to 18,000.

Drug clinics in Liverpool are reporting that half their heroin addicts are
now also addicted to crack cocaine.

Wirral has the highest number of drug addicts per 1,000 population, with 14
people in treatment per 1,000, followed by Liverpool, with 10.

Professor Mark Bellis, director of the centre, said the past decade had
seen substantial changes in how drug-related problems were tackled in the
UK. The vast majority of under 16s in drug treatment were there for using
amphetamines, cannabis and ecstasy, rather than heroin and crack cocaine.

"We have one or two at the moment who have come forward because of their
use of drugs like cocaine," he said. "But they are very much in the
minority. We find that people come to us four or 10 years down the line,
after they started using drugs when they were 10, 11 or 12. But there is a
significant delay before they are treated in clinics."

Evidence on the spread of relatively high levels of heroin use from urban
to rural areas suggested that the spread of crack cocaine across the region
was well under way, Prof Bellis said.

"We have seen quite a dramatic increase in cocaine use in the last decade,"
he added. "That is because the price has dropped and the club scene has
moved on to cocaine, instead of the more traditional drugs like ecstasy."

Jim McVeigh, the principal author of the report and a senior lecturer in
substance misuse at the centre, said: "The report's findings support this
suggestion, showing that crack cocaine use is firmly established in central
Merseyside compared with more rural areas, where most clients are
opiate-only users."

Last week, police in Merseyside seized the largest haul of crack cocaine in
Britain at a series of addresses in Crosby.