Heroin use among young 'rising'

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Heroin is rapidly becoming the drug of choice for young people and the children as young as six have used it, drug workers in south Wales have said.

Information obtained by BBC Wales shows the youngest person arrested in recent year for supplying heroin was aged 10.

Last week, Carly Townsend's mother Andrea and sister Gemma Evans from Llanelli were convicted of manslaughter after Carly died of a heroin overdose.

The Swansea area has a particular problem with youths using the drug.

Since 2005, 453 young people under 18 have been referred for treatment for heroin addiction across Wales.

Of those, 163 came from the Swansea area.

Drug workers there say it has become part of youth drug culture, and can be bought for as little as £5.

Years ago, it was a bit of a taboo - you had the label of being a junkie. It doesn't seem to be like that any more Jamie Harris, drugs worker

In Swansea, the Sandpit project has been set up specifically to deal with users between the ages of 11 and 19.

In many other parts of the country, young people have to use services designed for adults.

Jamie Harris, dual diagnosis worker at the project, says clients who take heroin are getting younger all the time.

"I think the reason for that is socially within youth culture, young people are getting 'older' in respect to their drug use.

"Years ago, it was a bit of a taboo - you had the label of being a junkie. It doesn't seem to be like that any more.

"It's just part and parcel of drug culture that heroin is involved."

'Blotted out'

Tia, 17, one of the project users, has spent £4,000 on the habit in the past year alone and has been reduced to begging on the streets in order to fund her addiction.

She started binge drinking and using cannabis at the age of 13, and was then introduced to smoking heroin.

"It was so easy to get my hands on," she said. "I started smoking about three years ago and recently I've been injecting.

"I'm gutted I got into it because it's ruined my life. It seems to have blotted everything out."

The former chief constable of Gwent, Francis Wilkinson, thinks the problem is compounded by the fact drugs are illegal.

He has pointed to the Swiss model, where heroin addicts are given the drug by the state in controlled clinics, as a possible way of curbing the growth of young users.

"The Swiss provide heroin to addicts in clinics, so it doesn't get out of them into the illegal market and it doesn't encourage any illegal market which is driven by people who are already addicts.

He added it was a way of avoid "pyramid selling" within communities.

"Users become dealers, or a lot of them do - it is something which is likely to be successful in a school environment where there are a lot of people of the same age or a bit younger around."