GRIM PLIGHT OF DRUG USERS' CHILDREN

Up to 350,000 children in Britain have at least one parent who is a problem
drug user, government advisers said yesterday.

Many are suffering "hidden harm" from poverty, abuse, poor health and
disrupted education. The children often fend for themselves and look after
their parents and siblings.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), conducted this first
official attempt to quantify the offspring of addicts. It hopes the
results, which paint a "depressing but not unexpected" picture, will jolt
mainstream health, social, education and child protection services, as well
as specialist drug services.

The inquiry suggested that its estimate of 2%-3% of all children under 16
being affected in England and Wales was "conservative". Better methods of
collating evidence in Scotland, where a slightly higher number of children
were born to drug users, accounted for a 4%-6% estimate there.

Laurence Gruer, who chaired the working group responsible for the inquiry
report, said: "Babies can be harmed during pregnancy by the drugs used by
their mothers. From birth onwards their parents' drug problems can endanger
their health in many ways and cause a great deal of emotional and
psychological damage that often goes unnoticed.

"Out of shame or fear, or simply because they are too young, such children
are rarely able to speak to anyone about their experiences and can become
isolated and excluded from society.

"Reducing the harm to these children should be a main aim of government
drug policy, and services such as child protection agencies, GPs and
education bodies need to work in a joined up way so signs are not
overlooked and these children's voices are heard."

Dr Gruer, a consultant in public health medicine based in Glasgow, said:
"The possibility that a child will stumble down the same path as his or her
parents is very real. We found more than a third of mothers, two-thirds of
fathers, were not living with their child and the more severe the drug
problem the less likely it was for children to be living with parents."

Of those who were not, only about 5% were in care, the rest living with
relatives such as grandparents or aunts. More research was needed in this
area. The council made 48 recommendations to government, public and
voluntary services.

The Home Office minister Bob Ainsworth said the government was investing
record amounts on its drug strategy, UKP 1.2bn this year, but recognised
that services needed to be expanded.