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Tuesday, 14 April, 1998, 17:19 GMT 18:19 UK
Middle England haunted by heroin
Country towns like this hide heroin addicts
Drugs workers are warning that heroin is making greater in-roads into country towns and rural communities - in contrast to the usual images of bleak tower blocks.
And the BBC's home affairs correspondent has found disturbing evidence of heroin use among several teenagers in one town, which he described as "middle England, geographically and socially". "Karen", who insisted on anonymity, started taking heroin at 14 but she finds it hard to explain why. "It's as if you're wrapped in cotton wool ... cloud nine ... really warm and loving," she said. "A lot of kids my age have problems, they just want to blank them out and I suppose heroin is one way of doing it. "I know people who come to school and say 'I'm just going for a quick toot in the loo', do you want to come," she confessed. "Teachers don't know anything about it," she said.
Living rough "Gary", who is a year older than Karen, has a £70-a-week habit after he was given free heroin for three or four weeks by a friend. But then his acquaintance asked for money. "He started saying 'well, you can buy some now', and then I was in that spiral I suppose. I thought, 'well if it means getting some, I suppose I'll have to'."
Denis says on the rare occasions he does see his daughters, she is like a stranger. "We're in a town, which you associate being sort of middle class, upper class, it's not an inner city area," he said. "The problem is being introduced to kids to get them hooked. I've heard it's being given away as a sample, someone's planned this out, we're going to make a profit from children." |
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