The Scots drug addicts aged just 14 – and even younger

THE reality of drug abuse among Scottish schoolchildren has been laid bare in a report that reveals more than 100 youngsters aged 14 and under admitted using drugs in Scotland last year.

The shocking new study of substance abuse found a further 808 new users aged 15-19 accepted they had a drug problem.

On average, cocaine users spend £113 every day just feeding their habit, while heroin addicts reported spending £35 each day on drugs. Much of this was paid for by state benefits and crime.

The details emerged in the Scottish Drugs Misuse Database, which tracked the number of new problem drug users reporting for treatment at the dozens of agencies across the country in 2008-9.

It paints a grim picture of daily life for Scotland’s estimated 55,000 drug addicts, with many also struggling with alcohol addiction and mental health problems, as well as challenges brought on by unemployment and homelessness.

But the most worrying statistic is the growing link between drugs and young children.

The report revealed 41 per cent of new users in Scotland began taking drugs under 15, with 45 per cent revealing their substance dependency began aged under 19.

Meanwhile, thousands of children have a parent that misuses drugs, with 42 per cent of respondents in the study responsible for a child below the age of 16.

The statistics are published days after Scottish academic Neil McKeganey revealed in The Scotsman that a single addict costs more than £60,000 a year in treatment expenses, costs to health-care services and cost of crime.

Politicians described the figures, published as part of the annual Drug Misuse Statistics bulletin, as “shocking” and said they were indicative of how deep Scotland’s problems with drugs ran.

The database revealed 11,955 new abusers of legal and illegal drugs reported for help from agencies, charities and healthcare professionals during 2008-9 – 245 for every 100,000 of population.

Heroin was the most common problem illicit drug with 5,565 users; 3,247 reported using diazepam; and 3,051 cannabis. There were 1,231 cocaine users and 526 people using crack cocaine.

Drug-taking was found to be most prevalent in large health board areas, with 3,210 new problem users in Greater Glasgow and Clyde and 2,244 in Lothian.

The users also offered a telling snapshot of the economic challenges they face, with high levels of unemployment – 71 per cent were out of work – and 68 per cent relied on benefits. A quarter used the proceeds of crime to feed their addiction and 19 per cent borrowed to fund their habit.

The link between drugs and crime was also highlighted by a statistic that showed 21 per cent of all new problem users were former prison inmates, and 28 per cent had criminal cases pending against them.

James Kelly, Scottish Labour spokesman for community safety, said: “It’s worrying to see children of such a young age already caught up in the spiral of drugs. We are seeing children presented at hospital at a very young age with drug and alcohol problems.”

Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie added: “This shows just how deep drugs abuse has become in too many parts of our society. Too many children are exposed to dependency.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Robert Brown said the figures showed Scotland was “not properly getting to grips with drug misuse”.

“Scotland’s drug addiction challenge has not improved one jot in recent years,” he said. “Drug use blights the lives of users, their families and communities. We must cut demand by prevention through prosecution of pushers who prey on the vulnerable.”

David Liddell, the director of Scottish Drugs Forum, said the number of young children involved in drugs was “really concerning” and Scotland needed to “break the cycle that can see children of parents with drug problems experience problems later in life”.

Craig Winter, of drugs charity Turning Point Scotland, said: “The people we support present not only with their addiction problems, but also with issues relating to unemployment, family relationships and involvement in criminal activity. We work not only to address addictions, but also to identify the underlying contributing factors.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Our national drugs strategy, The Road to Recovery, sets out our commitment to reducing the damage drugs do to communities and individuals in Scotland. This drugs strategy is supported by record investment.

“We are investing a record £28.6million in front-line drug treatment services to help people with drug problems in their recovery.”

Case study: ‘I spent most of my life just wanting to stop’

CHRISTOPHER Knight reckons he was just six months away from death when he finally managed to overcome a drug problem that had seen him addicted to cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy and heroin.

“I did the most difficult thing that I ever had to do and asked my father for some money, then went into treatment,” Mr Knight, 40, said.

Previously, he had stolen from his father to feed the habit which almost destroyed him. Aged just 14, he started smoking cannabis. As a young man, he turned to hard drugs and alcohol.

“The real problems started when I was about 27. I was using cocaine. I had used it when I was younger, but then it just became manic. I just wanted more and more,” Mr Knight said.

“Later, I tried heroin. It wasn’t really my thing, but I used it a hell of a lot.

“I spent most of my life just wanting to stop, but I couldn’t. I tried hospitals, the NHS, I even went to a local drug and alcohol health team to try and wean myself off.

“But all the time I was just chasing money to feed my habit. If I went 12 hours without drugs, I just went haywire – a mess.

“So, I did whatever I could to find drugs. I stole from my parents, from institutions. I suppose I wasn’t that bad compared with some others.”

It was the shortage of money that finally led Mr Knight, who is now the managing director of Panacea Health Care – an organisation that helps drug abusers with a clinic in Edinburgh, to give up six years ago.

“Like most people when the money is not there, I started using alcohol and I got really badly into alcohol and drugs.

“I spent days wanting to die. I had tried doctors, but one day I looked up a clinic on the internet.

“Had I left it another six months, I would have died. I went into treatment and I felt like I was coming home. There were other addicts there and we helped each other – that’s the way recovery works.”