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All the latest news stories...February 2012 |
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| TEENAGERS who think smoking cannabis is harmless could actually be taking the first steps down the road to despair and addiction to hard drugs. This is the stark warning from Peterborough drug 'tsar' Michelle Baxter, who deals first-hand with rehabilitating people whose lives have been devastated by the effects of drugs. Miss Baxter's comments that pot can be the gateway to addiction to hard drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine came as the Government has been forced to rethink its 'soft' approach to cannabis after downgrading it to a class C drug. Miss Baxter told the city council's scrutiny committee, which was discussing the annual expenditure of £876,000 on treating and educating youngsters on the dangers of becoming hooked on drugs, that 75 per cent of heroin addicts in the city had also struggled with cannabis addiction earlier in their lives. She said police, schools and youth justice workers needed to work together to stamp out 'recreational' drug use because of its devastating long-term consequences. Miss Baxter said: "If we do not deal with cannabis problems in our young people, they go on to have problems with heroin. "I am not making a political point, but the majority of people we treat for heroin addiction have struggled with problems with cannabis. "If we fail in our efforts to deal with young people's drug problems, we will soon be dealing with adults with engrained drug problems. "But there are no quick fixes and these problems require a mixture of early identification, intervention, education and long-term treatment." She also added that more city youngsters were experimenting with cannabis following the reclassification of the drug. She said: "The biggest concern about downgrading cannabis was that it confused young people, and we have seen an increased use of it." One committee member knew only too well the dangers outlined by Miss Baxter. Cllr Allan Kempsell had seen a friend's life destroyed after he started smoking cannabis and ended up a heroin junkie. Cllr Kempsell said: "I have never touched drugs because I saw a friend go from smoking joints to heroin addiction, and then death, within just one year. Ms Baxter, who is leading the city council's substance misuse strategy, said drug intervention workers were having to help young junkies who lived in appalling squalor in Peterborough. She said: "One 16-year-old girl was sleeping on a sofa with her boyfriend, using drugs, and we suspected there was a degree of sexual exploitation going on. "Six months down the line, she now has her own accommodation, is taking methadone and is engaged in an education and training programme." However, Detective Inspector Michael Beales, who leads the Peterborough Nene Drug Intervention Programme, which helps hardcore class A drugs addicts into training, rehab and employment, said addiction was caused by many different reasons. He said: "Sometimes it is prompted by family breakdown, sometimes trauma or peer pressure." The Government is now reviewing its decision to reclassify cannabis from class B to class C in January 2004. Studies have suggested strong links with mental illness, such as psychosis. |
