ADDICTS TURN 'GENTEEL' TUNBRIDGE WELLS INTO THE HEROIN CAPITAL OF KENT

IT was once described by the historian Lord Macaulay as "one of the
richest and highly civilised parts of the kingdom" with its "brilliant
shops" and "luxury dwellings", where people would flock to sample the
invigorating waters of its spa.

Today, it is the object of an altogether less healthy pilgrimage.
Heroin usage among the young people of Kent is increasing, threatening
the sanctity of one of Britain's most definitively middle-class towns:
"Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" has been replaced by "Addicted of
Tunbridge Wells".

The change is not immediately apparent to the visitor. Outwardly its
demeanour remains as resolutely conservative and elegant as ever.
Behind the facades of the Georgian sandstone and half-timbered
clapboard houses the denizens of Tunbridge Wells are, however,
increasingly ill at ease.

The insidious presence of heroin on its streets, and in the veins of
the young people who use it, has begun to encroach upon the daily
realities of even the most well-to-do residents. It was highlighted
last week when Theresa Dodd, whose husband Charles is a retired
solicitor, revealed how three of her four privately educated daughters
had become addicts.

One of them, Antonia, 30, has now kicked her habit. Her siblings
Thomasina, 27, and Angelika, 21, are still struggling to deal with
their addictions. They beg and borrow money to perpetuate a vice that
has destroyed their health and brought them to the brink of suicide.

They are not alone. Drug workers estimate that the town, population
60,000, is home to about 50 known hardcore heroin addicts. They need
to feed their craving every day with a UKP10 bag or "fix".

The knock-on for the rest of Tunbridge Wells comes in the methods
employed to find this money. Some addicts, such as Angelika, beg for
their pennies, sitting forlornly in the street. Others resort to more
forceful means; anecdotally at least, street crime has risen.

Dr Andrew Wilski, a consultant psychiatrist who deals with drug
takers, lives with his wife and their five children aged three to 19
in a three-storey Victorian terrace house in one of town's most
stylish enclaves, minutes from the main drag of shops.

"All of my four older children have at some point been attacked by
people on the street who wanted money," he said.

"One was badly beaten in an assault. Another was threatened with being
pushed under a car unless he produced money.

"The atmosphere in the whole town has changed. There is something in
the air which is not terribly attractive."

Not all of those who use the drug are middle-class dropouts. Much of
the problem emanates from the town's less salubrious corners, its
council estates, such as the Sherwood Park complex, hidden away from
the view of tourists and unmentioned in the guidebooks.

"It is a very unattractive place and a lot of people just vegetate on
drugs there," said Dr Wilski.

An NHS drugs worker, who asked not to be named, said that heroin use
has increased in line with the rise in its availability. "We have
addicts here aged between 16 and 60 and the total number of addicts
goes up gradually each year."

Prosperous middle-class enclaves near Tunbridge Wells are also not
immune to the creep of heroin addiction. Anton Derkacz, of the charity
Kent Council on Addiction, said: "From the mid-1990s it became much
more widely available. Now there are suppliers and users in every
small town and village."