Radio show highlights plight of heroin addicts

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by Change | 8 Feb 2010

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Thousands of people in north Wales are thought to be in need of drug addiction help.

It is estimated that there are approximately 10,000 people in need of heroin addiction treatment in north Wales.

This is according to figures from drug and alcohol addiction charity Cais, with local station BBC Radio Cymru profiling two addicts, brothers John and Paul, on its Manylu programme this evening (February 8th).

The pair told the current affairs show about their ongoing heroin addiction rehabilitation, which involves them visiting a drop-in centre on a weekly basis.

With their habits having cost them £80 a day, one of the brothers explained to the news provider how his family no longer trusts him after he began stealing and selling their possessions.

"I've stolen my mother's jewellery, everything. She [mum] went out and when she came back her freezer was empty," he said.

Both are long-term addicts and despite not being free from heroin, they have managed to cut down thanks to the successful heroin intervention programmes to approximately £10 per day.

Lorraine Devereux, a mental health nurse at the drop-in facility, said that drug addiction, and the depression that accompanies it, is a "big problem" in the Holyhead and Caernafron areas.

In 2006, the number of deaths related to drug abuse in England and Wales was nearly double the number recorded in 1993.

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