Pubdate: Thu, 6 Apr 2000 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: 2000 Guardian Newspapers Limited Contact: 75 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER, England Fax: +44-171-837 4530 Website: http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/guardian/ Forum: http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/BBS/News/0,2161,Latest|Topics|3,00.html Author: Hilary Kinnell and Nick Davies IGNORANCE ABOUT DRUGS IS THE REAL SCANDAL Teenage heroin and crack use are serious matters: equally worrying is the poor drugs knowledge reported (Heroin: abusers start at 15, April 5), but this does not justify alarmist reporting of a very small survey. Between 5% and 20% of 86 respondents in four towns means no more than four teenagers have reported being offered heroin in each place. This is hardly news. I'm sure I could find as many within 24 hours, and without any Department of Health funding, in my village. HIV prevention and drugs workers have known heroin use was widespread in these places for at least 10 years, but if agencies are not reaching younger users, it is because they have not had the resources to expand their services: underfunding of drug treatment and care is a scan dal the Guardian has recently mentioned. What can be the excuse for researchers from Manchester University to be unaware of the publications from Manchester Lifeline? McDermott's Guide to Brown for Beginners, for example, is just one of numerous drugs leaflets for young people using their own language. Neither is the present relative ubiquity of crack, compared with the late 80s, a shocking new development. Ten years ago crack was rare everywhere except in the fevered imagination of tabloid journalism. Hilary Kinnell European Network for HIV Prevention in Prostitution The real insight of your report is the breath-taking ignorance in official circles. Two experts, funded by the Department of Health on be half of Drug Scope, tell us cities like Hull, Bradford and Bristol have been "untouched" until recently by heroin. I have just checked with police who deal with all three cities. The fact is heroin made its home there years ago, as it did in every other city and in almost every town. Bradford has a particularly successful heroin trade from Pakistan. As for Hull and Bristol - tell a social worker or police officer that they haven't had to deal with the heroin blackmarket for years. At least you'd get a laugh. The government's disastrous prohibition policy survives primarily because the ministers and officials who defend it do not know what they are talking about. Nick Davies London - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea