'I'd use anything in front of me'

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Charity DrugScope said diazepam is being used as a heroin substituteAn increasing number of drug users are said to be turning to the tranquilliser diazepam. A former addict working for a drug charity says it is true of some people he now helps.

Before Pete, 55, who asked not to give his full name, volunteered for drug charity Turning Point, he was a drug addict for 30 years.

In central England, where Pete works with addicts, the use of diazepam is not widespread but it does exist, he said.

It is sometimes used as a heroin substitute, but lacks the "euphoric high".

One 33-year-old woman, who has been clean for a year, told him she used to take the tranquilliser - which she was prescribed for deep-rooted emotional issues - to ease the comedown from crack cocaine.

"I would estimate she used the tranquiliser for about four or five years," he said.

Another drug user, a white homeless man in his 30s, told him he bought a batch of 80 diazepam tablets from someone on the street every fortnight.

The person who supplied the tranquillisers is regularly prescribed them by a doctor.

'Always been there'

Diazepam is a Class C drug in the UK, prescribed to reduce anxiety and tension and legally available on prescription only. It is better known under its original brand name, Valium.

Its rising popularity is thought to be down partly to its cheapness, partly to it becoming more accessible as a generic drug - and partly because of a drop in the availability and quality of heroin, according to drugs information charity DrugScope.

Pete said in his area, the quality of heroin seemed to be the key factor in the use of diazepam.

Diazepam, formerly known as Valium, is prescribed for insomnia <a class="" href="/1/hi/uk/7594463.stm">Drug users 'turning to diazepam' </a>

"By the time it gets to the streets, where the supply comes is important, and the quality has become quite poor lately."

But he said prescribed drugs and tranquilisers have always been used by drug addicts because they are a cheap alternative.

Reflecting on his own experience, he said: "I'd go to doctors for opium substitutes like diazepam, and burgle chemists.

"I got caught up in the whole culture - nobody judged you because everyone was in the same boat.

"They weren't my drugs of choice, but I would use everything. It wasn't about 'what' drug - it was about 'more drugs'."

But Pete says mixing drugs is a "dangerous cocktail".

He thinks there is much more help available for drug addicts nowadays, but it is important to catch users at "crucial times along the progression of the addiction".

Admitting problem

Pete started taking drugs in the early 1970s when he was 15. Before long, he had graduated from LSD and alcohol - which he classes as a drug - to cocaine and heroin.

"It was a classic addict's tale - as a consequence I went to jails, institutions, pushed my family away, had near death experiences and was surrounded by people dying."

To feed his addiction, he consumed anything from a £10 bag of heroin a day, containing about a quarter of a gram of heroin, to seven grams which cost about £250 at the time.

"I'd use whatever was in front of me, it was an obsession," he said.

"I'd use drugs to change the way I felt because I didn't like myself, I didn't know how to stop."

He said his own turning point came when both of his parents died.

"I had nothing left to live for, nothing to live up to - I had already accepted I was going to be a junkie - but suddenly something inside me found the courage to ask for help. Admitting I had a problem was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.

"I had my last drink and last drug on Armistice Day, on 11 November 1999, just before 11am."