Inside U.K. Heroin Use On the Rise Among Youth Across Britain By STEVE HILL	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
英でヘロインがまん延 イギリスの若者の間でヘロインの使用者が急増し、深刻な問題となっています。政府には緊急対策が求められていますがーー。

Britain is bracing itself for a new heroin epidemic, according to a report recently published by a government research group.

Worryingly teenagers are being targeted by drug dealers, who, despite the risks of being caught and spending long spells in prison, can make huge profits from their deplorable trade.

The Home Office report certainly makes for depressing reading. It states that new outbreaks of heroin use have been reported in many areas of England and that in some regions children aged between 10 and 12 have been found trying the drug.

My home city of Bristol, for example, is showing "a full blown outbreak," according to the research document. It states that the heroin-using population of 1,500 teenagers is currently found almost exclusively in housing estates outside the city. Already run down, these areas are now suffering further as youngsters turn to petty crime to pay for their drug habit. The local probation service says that over 80 percent of the 18- to 25-year-olds convicted for burglary have a drug problem related to the use of heroin.

It's a similar story in other areas — and not just inner cities. Traditionally drug-free regions such as Devon, Cornwall, Hampshire and Surrey are now reporting outbreaks, adding to fears that Britain is facing a second heroin epidemic following the first upsurge in the 1980s. And the report adds that many more communities will see the arrival of the drug within the next year or so. It says many of the new teenage addicts are from affluent, middle-class backgrounds and unaware of the addictive power of heroin.

The scale of the problem becomes clear when you consider the fact that 48 percent of people aged between 16 and 24 claim to have tried drugs, including cannabis.

The Home Office report adds that a major reason for the spread in the use of heroin is linked to its illegal importation from Southwest Asia. It comes primarily via the Balkans across the European Union to Britain. A fall in the price of heroin has also led to its increased use. The drug has been renamed "brown" or "browns," and sold in £5 (¥1,050) and £10 (¥2,100) "wraps," which can be smoked, although an increasing number of users are now injecting themselves.

Distribution of heroin has become a slick, well-organized affair with dealers using the network of motorways to move drugs around the country, arranging "drops" via mobile telephones and pagers to lessen the chances of being detected by the police.

Many addicts tell a depressing tale. Some begin by sniffing glue, graduate to cannabis and then start to take heroin. Even at such a relatively low price, the habit could prove to be expensive — it is not unusual for addicts, desperate for another fix, to spend up to £400 (¥84,000) a week. The police are well aware of the need to crack down on dealers, but although there have been successes leading to arrests, there is no shortage of replacements to take a dealer's place.

One ounce of heroin, costing £800 (¥168,000), can produce 300 wraps at £10 a piece, generating enormous profit. Some people cleary think dealing in drugs is a risk worth taking.

How Britain combats the growing drug menace is now a matter for serious debate. There are calls for stricter sentencing of dealers found to be selling to children and urgent demands for a review of drug services for young people.

Some suggest further educating children about the dangers of taking drugs while others recommend starting a public health campaign aimed at giving heroin a bad name.

But the government report acknowledges there is currently a lack of services for young people in general, and that there will be a time lag between planning and opening new services, thereby hampering local responses to problems. In the meantime, agencies have their hands full dealing with problems generated by socially accepted drugs such as tobacco and alcohol.

Shukan ST: Oct. 23, 1998

(C) All rights reserved