NEW WAVE OF HEROIN SUCKS IN PRE-TEENS

With Opium Production Soaring in Afghanistan, the Drug of the Eighties Is
Now Cheaper Than Ever

Heroin was seen as yesterday's drug - the preserve of ageing junkies
and social dropouts. But wrinkled pieces of scorched kitchen foil
discarded in city alleyways tell a different story. Heroin is back and
it's coming out of the housing estates.

Bumper crops in Afghanistan have made the drug cheaper than ever. Only
#5 will buy enough to keep a smoker in a state of euphoria for hours.
Puffing the heated white powder - 'chasing the dragon' - is the
delivery method for the new heroin takers, who see syringes as dirty
and dangerous.

Despite the removal of the Taliban regime and Western governments'
promises to end the dominance of the opium crop, Afghanistan produced
3,400 tonnes last year. That was its biggest-ever harvest - up 700
tonnes on 2001 - and returns it to the top of the world league of
heroin producers.

The ripple effect has led to lower prices on British streets. When
eyes are on cocaine and crack cocaine, heroin offers a
bargain-basement, hard-drug alternative.

Students and the working young wishing to dabble are prepared to
venture into sink estates to secure their supply. 'I just go up to the
shop, buy the stuff and get out of there,' said 22-year-old student
Keith, describing an empty flat in an area of Glasgow that is a heroin
outlet. 'I'll meet up with some friends and we'll smoke. Usually we'll
go to a mate's house, but we have had the odd smoke in the park. It's
the feeling. The world just fades away.'

Yet he said he would not consider injecting. 'Folk who spike their
veins go mad. They lose it. Having a smoke now and then is different.'
Scotland's largest city has long been regarded as the heroin capital
of the UK. At least 15,000 addicts - 3.1 per cent of the population
aged between 15 and 54 - live in the greater Glasgow area and spend
more than #160 million a year on their drug habits, largely funded by
crime. Of the 300 people who died through drug overdoses in Scotland
last year, the vast majority were in Glasgow.

The UK has the fastest-growing number of heroin addicts of any country
in Europe. The total amount of heroin seized last year was almost a
third more than the amount of cocaine seized.

A spokesperson for the charity Drugscope told The Observer that
pockets of increased heroin usage were springing up in parts of the
country suffering from economic depression.

Danny Kushlick from Transform, which campaigns on issues of drug
policy, added: 'Patterns of usage change according to local fashions.
While an increase may be linked to higher availability, it can also be
down to a few "cool" people who begin using locally and encourage
others to do the same.'

Academic studies have shown pre-teens are now experimenting with
heroin. 'We asked drug-using 11- and 12-year-olds in Scotland if they
had tried some form of heroin. Between 5 and 6 per cent of them said
yes. Five years ago the percentage would have been zero,' said
Professor Neil McKeganey of the University of Glasgow.

This stark outlook has prompted a hardline response. Newspaper
campaigns and demonstrations aimed at clamping down on dealers have
proved popular.

A US-style Drug Enforcement Agency was launched to tackle the problem.
The agency announced last week that it had hauled #55m-worth of drugs
off Scotland's streets in 2002 - five times more than in the previous
year.

However, campaigners claim substance abuse is as widespread as ever,
despite the war on drugs. Gail McCann, who set up the action group
Mothers Against Drugs, said: 'An indication that the clampdown was
cutting supplies would be an increase in the price of heroin, but we
have seen no sign of that. Kids are going out and buying bags of this
stuff for #5. A decade ago they would have had to have spent at least
double that. Heroin is the number one threat to young lives in the
west of Scotland. '

The availability of hard drugs shocks Mary McClelland, a mother with a
stark warning for those who think smoking or snorting is safe.

'Heroin is highly addictive,' she said. 'When it is smoked, the
effects are felt in seconds, but wear off quickly. Smoking repeatedly
can lead to increased tolerance and addicted users need a constant
supply of heroin just to feel normal. Before they know what, they're
injecting.'

McClelland's son, Christopher, should have been 28 next week. He died
of a heroin overdose five years ago.