30,000 Kid Druggies On Heroin

[Alfa]

30,000 KID DRUGGIES ON HEROIN
ABOUT 30,000 children are hooked on heroin in Britain, a Government study reveals.
It shows that the number of under-15s using the drug is much higher than previously thought.
The figures come a week after an 11-year-old Glasgow girl collapsed at her primary school desk after smoking heroin.
And in Scotland, police arrested 70 children for dealing drugs last year.
One per cent of all kids used heroin at least once since 2000, according to the Government survey.
Addiction expert Dr Paul Skett, of Glasgow University, said: "Heroin affects the brain which means children won't develop properly."
Gaille McCann, of Mothers Against Drugs, said: "The Government needs to act quickly."

Source: Mirror, The (UK)

[Alfa]

NEW GENERATION JUNKIES
Shocking Though It Is, The Story Of The 11-Year-Old Heroin Addict In Scotland Is Far From Unique
When an 11-year-old girl slumped at her desk at school, her teachers assumed she had fallen asleep. But the girl had collapsed after having taken heroin.
The girl, who lives in Glasgow, is said to have become addicted nine months ago at the age of 10. She had watched her mother and father take heroin in their home and had started to experiment, a relative said.
But while her story shocks, it is not unique. Research suggests that there could be about 60 children in Glasgow who have used heroin by the age of 12. Not only that, but almost one in 10 children aged 11 and 12 has been offered illegal drugs, and nearly a third have been in situations where illegal drugs have been used.
But the problem isn't unique to Glasgow. There are about 350,000 children in the UK with one or both parents addicted to illegal drugs who are at serious risk of addiction, if they aren't hooked already.
Relatives initially thought that the girl, who was becoming gaunt, was suffering from anorexia. She had been teased at her school in Pollock, in the south-west of the city, for being overweight. Then members of her family started noticing black foil marks on her clothes. The girl and her sister were put into foster care in Ayrshire when their mother finally admitted she could no longer cope.
When they returned, they went to stay with a relative on the east side of the city and were transferred to a different school. Three weeks later, the 11-year-old collapsed. She was taken to hospital and told social services she had taken public transport to buy "tenner bags" of heroin from a female dealer at the Pollock Centre, a rundown shopping mall.
Pollock, which has a long association with poverty, is a forlorn place where drugs are said to be widely available. The shopping centre is a depressing hangout, even without its recent notoriety.
Locals heading for the shops have to cross a bridge over a river into which traffic bollards have been chucked. Inside the mall more shops have closed down than are open. Certainly everyone is horrified at what also appears to have been on sale at the centre.
"It's disgusting. She's a wee lassie," said student Ashleigh Chambers, 16. "What was going through her mind?" Her friend Suzanne Boland, 17, was equally aghast. "It's terrible. A wee girl that age shouldn't even know what heroin is."
One 56-year-old shopper, who didn't want to be named, said she had seen drugs been dealt in the area. "One day I passed by with my daughter and they were doing deals outside the bank and it was 11.15am. It's rife."
Since her collapse, the girl has been admitted to the city's Sick Children's Hospital. Too young to be given methadone, she is going cold turkey.
This incident comes as no surprise to Neil McKeganey, professor of drug misuse research at Glasgow University. "As tragic as this case is, one positive thing that might come out of it is that it opens many people's eyes to the reality that age is now no barrier to becoming involved with serious drug abuse," he said.
Glasgow has a long-standing drug problem. In Calton, a couple of miles from Pollock, life expectancy for men is 53.9 years, compared to Iraq's 67.49.
Last year, 214 children under the age of 15 were treated in Scotland for drug addiction treatment, up by more than 150 per cent compared to five years ago.
"A child of that age could easily suffer a fatal drug overdose because of the immaturity of their body and the lack of tolerance that one often sees in older drugs users," added Professor McKeganey.
There are also the severe emotional consequences of children knowing that they come second to their parents' addiction.
The 11-year-old's mother has since booked herself into a detox clinic. Many recovered addicts say it was the realisation of the effects of their habit on their children that forced them to stop.
But by then it is often too late for the child who has already paid the price.
When an 11-year-old girl slumped at her desk at school, her teachers assumed she had fallen asleep. But the girl had collapsed after having taken heroin.
The girl, who lives in Glasgow, is said to have become addicted nine months ago at the age of 10. She had watched her mother and father take heroin in their home and had started to experiment, a relative said.
But while her story shocks, it is not unique. Research suggests that there could be about 60 children in Glasgow who have used heroin by the age of 12. Not only that, but almost one in 10 children aged 11 and 12 has been offered illegal drugs, and nearly a third have been in situations where illegal drugs have been used.
But the problem isn't unique to Glasgow. There are about 350,000 children in the UK with one or both parents addicted to illegal drugs who are at serious risk of addiction, if they aren't hooked already.
Relatives initially thought that the girl, who was becoming gaunt, was suffering from anorexia. She had been teased at her school in Pollock, in the south-west of the city, for being overweight. Then members of her family started noticing black foil marks on her clothes. The girl and her sister were put into foster care in Ayrshire when their mother finally admitted she could no longer cope.
When they returned, they went to stay with a relative on the east side of the city and were transferred to a different school. Three weeks later, the 11-year-old collapsed. She was taken to hospital and told social services she had taken public transport to buy "tenner bags" of heroin from a female dealer at the Pollock Centre, a rundown shopping mall.
Pollock, which has a long association with poverty, is a forlorn place where drugs are said to be widely available. The shopping centre is a depressing hangout, even without its recent notoriety.
Locals heading for the shops have to cross a bridge over a river into which traffic bollards have been chucked. Inside the mall more shops have closed down than are open. Certainly everyone is horrified at what also appears to have been on sale at the centre. "It's disgusting. She's a wee lassie," said student Ashleigh Chambers, 16.
"What was going through her mind?" Her friend Suzanne Boland, 17, was equally aghast. "It's terrible. A wee girl that age shouldn't even know what heroin is."
One 56-year-old shopper, who didn't want to be named, said she had seen drugs been dealt in the area. "One day I passed by with my daughter and they were doing deals outside the bank and it was 11.15am. It's rife."
Since her collapse, the girl has been admitted to the city's Sick Children's Hospital. Too young to be given methadone, she is going cold turkey.
This incident comes as no surprise to Neil McKeganey, professor of drug misuse research at Glasgow University. "As tragic as this case is, one positive thing that might come out of it is that it opens many people's eyes to the reality that age is now no barrier to becoming involved with serious drug abuse," he said.
Glasgow has a long-standing drug problem. In Calton, a couple of miles from Pollock, life expectancy for men is 53.9 years, compared to Iraq's 67.49.
Last year, 214 children under the age of 15 were treated in Scotland for drug addiction treatment, up by more than 150 per cent compared to five years ago.
"A child of that age could easily suffer a fatal drug overdose because of the immaturity of their body and the lack of tolerance that one often sees in older drugs users," added Professor McKeganey.
There are also the severe emotional consequences of children knowing that they come second to their parents' addiction.
The 11-year-old's mother has since booked herself into a detox clinic. Many recovered addicts say it was the realisation of the effects of their habit on their children that forced them to stop.
But by then it is often too late for the child who has already paid the price.

[AceOvArts]

I wonder what government study this is then, they (the gov.) probably dont know the half of it.

[sands of time]

I remember a story in detriot that a 7 year old girl tested positive for cocaine! About the 11 year old heroin addicts... How does an 11 year old get the money for that kind of a habit? I just can't believe that kids of this age are doing this, the studies must have been conducted in a skewed manner.

[Eirias]

How pure is the H in Scotland-- it's like #3 or #4 grade from Asia/Middle East, right? And how big would a "tenner bag" be? I am assuming that this is a ten-pounds sterling (around xxxxx USD) bag of H, and if this is anything like the ten-dollar bags sold in places like NYC where the dope (#3 and #4 from Colombia) is also quite pure, well I would guess it's ultimately about 100-150mg of heroin or so. This is also the price where SWIM lives for #2 or #3 from Mexico, but no #4 (aka "China White"). Occasionally the price where SWIM lives is goes up to xxxxxx per "balloon", but in other states and cities (like SF, CA) the dope in balloons is not only more pricey but is also waaay less pure (shitty #1 grade).

Just wondering exactly how much she's getting for how much $.
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Ahem! Did you hit your head when you fell out of bed?

[AceOvArts]

I dont know about numbers and prices as I dont live in Scot and I dont use H. But any sort of amount in the hands of a child is so dangerous, the sad thing was that the girl didnt even know she was doing something wrong. Its avery poor state of affairs. I have 3 kids and this sort of news is some scary s**t

[Micklemouse]

Firstly, Ace - the study in question, according to the dear ol' Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/05/nheroin05.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/05/ixnewstop.htm l
is "Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People in England in 2004"

http://www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/11/81/54/04118154.pdf

Sands, yer right - studies like this are going to be inherently skewed, being an extrapolation based on a snapshot of a notoriously unreliable source, further warped by the media interpretation of the figures. Nowhere in the study is the definitive statement that 30,000 children are hooked on heroin.

The girl, despite stories that she was scoring on street corners (cctv footage confirms that she wasn't!), was stealing the smack from her parents, and basically made up the story to protect them & herself. Even amongst smack dealers there is a certain amount of honour and ethics, and few if any would think of selling to one so young, having a healthy respect for their kneecaps, and a dislike of the effect of a baseball bat upon them!

As for the purity, as with everywhere it's variable - every now and then a batch of abnormal purity and strength will get through, people die, questions get asked, people are busted, new people take over, the quality goes down, the cycle starts again...

[fletch]

who the hell is providing drugs to such young children, personally i find it hard to believe such statements. my sister is the same age and it would bring me to tears if she even knew what the hell heroin was, let alone have access to use it. i think alot of these statistics are tactics to induce fear. its like the scenerio of the man who picked away all his skin while hallucinating on lsd becaise he thought he was an orange, or whatever. but i mean i guess there are some wacked out people who would see no harm in providing children with an access to a short lived life.

[sometimesx345]

I have a friend who used cocaine when she was 11. Her brother was 20 and supplied her with it. I don't know the whole story, but she definately got addicted. She stopped when she was 12 and her brother died from an OD. Kids that young are most likely getting it from people older than them. I also didn't know what drugs like "cocaine" and "heroin" were until I was in 5th grade and we had DARE, an anti-drug program. They pretty much told us what it was, and why people did it. Once you know what it is you can easily get access to it. Also, in places with extremely large drug problems anyone can go up to a street dealer and get some. As for money, many kids do have allowances and can easily steal from their parents. I never did this (seriously) but I do know people who have done it that young.

[AceOvArts]

I would think its mainly from brothers and sisters that are young enough to be totally irresponsible.
Its sad, at least when I grew up I was told drugs were real bad, so I didnt even think about taking them until I was about 16.
There is a plus side to telling kids ALL drugs are bad, but I think education about drugs should come when youre about 14. Unfortunately making kids aware of drugs will lead to more kids taking them, but the current problem of drugs being illegal and kids not really knowing about how bad some can be is whats causing this type of behaviour.
I think if all drugs were legal you would remove that "Im rebelling by taking illegal substances therefore Im cool" thing that alot of kids...and adults for that matter think.

Sorry if Im rambling and going off topic

[bonghed]

Originally Posted by Eirias

Just wondering exactly how much she's getting for how much $.

I would think probably 0.2 for xxx

I live in England though not scotland.

I laughed at this, but in NO fucking way do i find it funny, didn't know how to react. Some people grow up quickly and can make responsible decisions imo (best to wait to adulthood at least anyway, but unrealistic), but 11, or 7, i mean FUCK...
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Ditto. No Prices!

Sorry i got here too late, i thought i sent it via PM.

[Jatelka]

Edit your post Bonghed: Is that not prices?

Erias also.