usenetposts
05.03.06, 20:13
If this article from the online Torygraph at
tinyurl.com/k3zyu is anything to go by, the UK is rapidly disappearing
up its own narked-up sphincter, and for all the cameras on every street
cornered and the overpopulated prisons, nobody seems able to do a blind thing
about it. Can't we just slip some slow acting toxin into the supply line and
have done with the problem? Is that, like, too much to ask?
Do middle class people leaving this country and going with their kids over
there to join the lower class know what they are getting into?
Here is what it says:
Up to 35,000 children under 16 are using heroin, according to official
figures.
The alarming scale of heroin abuse by children is revealed just a week after
an 11-year-old girl collapsed at her primary school desk in Glasgow after
smoking the drug.
Gaille McCann: 'the girl wasn't an isolated case'
Until now, figures on heroin addiction among children were based on research
collated from just two cities, Glasgow and Newcastle upon Tyne, where 90
heroin addicts under 13 were discovered.
But new Government figures, based on a nationwide survey, show that the
problem is much more widespread than originally thought. One leading academic
on child drug abuse said last night that the number of schoolchildren using
heroin could be as high as 60,000.
Doctors said the figure showed that heroin was a ticking "health time bomb"
and parents called for urgent action by the Government.
Gaille McCann, a spokesman for Mothers Against Drugs, said last night: "The
Government's own figures prove that the 11-year-old girl wasn't an isolated
case.
"They keep trying to reassure us that there isn't a crisis but they need to
stop pretending and act quickly before the situation gets out of control."
Dr Paul Skett, an addiction expert from Glasgow University, gave warning that
heroin abuse could cause serious long-term damage to children's
health. "Heroin affects the brain, hormonal and sexual development which
means children won't develop properly and girls might not be able to have
children when they are older," he said.
The Government findings, from the study Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among
Young People in England in 2004, states that in each year since 2000 one per
cent of all schoolchildren used heroin at least once.
More than 9,700 children aged 11 to 15 were interviewed. A similar survey was
conducted in Scotland, where the same percentage of heroin users was found
among 7,000 schoolchildren.
Elizabeth Fuller, the lead statistician on the Government survey, said that
the figure was rounded up from 0.7 per cent but margins of error meant that
the figure could be 0.5 per cent or 0.9 per cent - putting the nationwide
number of children taking heroin at between 19,500 and 35,100.
Prof Neil McKeganey, a narcotics expert from Glasgow University, said the
figure could be much higher than 35,000 and would continue to rise.
"Growing numbers of children are being exposed to heroin from infancy," he
said. "Around 300,000 children growing up in the UK have one or both parents
addicted to heroin. These children assume heroin use is quite normal."
Sarah Compton, 29, who became hooked on heroin after suffering sexual abuse
as a child and is currently in rehabilitation with the charity Phoenix House,
said: "I went to a Catholic school where they didn't warn us about the
dangers of drink and drugs until we were 13 and 14, and by then it was too
late. It's not unusual to be doing A-class drugs at 12."
Kelly Anderson, 27, from Newcastle, whose spiral towards heroin addiction
began at 14, said: "I'm not surprised that there are 11-year-olds on heroin.
I've seen it before. It's definitely usual for kids around 14."
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary said: "We need effective measures
to create awareness in young people of the risks."
The Department of Health said: "We have made sure that all schools receive
guidance on solvents, drugs and alcohol."