Crack usage on the rise in North

Crack cocaine abuse is on the rise in the North. In one health board area alone, more than 30 registered addicts admitted taking it.

The revelation came as police analysts identified potential shifts in the underworld drugs trade, where cannabis is still the top product sold by paramilitary dealers.

Although no seizures of crack have been made in the North, a growing number of users disclosed taking it among other banned substances.

Gill Burns, head of addiction services at the Northern Board’s Homefirst and Causeway Trust, has monitored its increase in her area.

She said: “In 2003 we had one person reporting a history of crack cocaine use. Currently there are 32 clients reporting a use.”

Most of them are based in Ballymena, Co Antrim – an area long gripped by heroin abuse.

Despite a quarter of addicts registered with the town’s Railway Street clinic saying they had also taken crack, Ms Burns stressed it was on a secondary basis.

“We are not having people coming forward saying this is the only drug I’m using,” she said. “This is a small increase in use. It’s still a very small number of people in a population of over 400,000 in the Northern Board area.

“These clients are probably mainly heroin users and at some time have used crack.”

Her analysis follows attempts by health chiefs to establish the true level of traditional cocaine use in the North.

Estimates are more difficult than with heroin because it is used in different ways.

Club-goers who take it on a night out are regarded as the same category as high-dependency users.

A study commissioned by the Drug and Alcohol Information and Research Unit found 3,303 opiate and/or cocaine users.

Often characterised as a drug of the wealthy, its spread has also been detected among teenagers.

Gavin Quinn, manager of Opportunity Youth which deals with high school students and young offenders at the Hydebank centre in south Belfast, said: “Cocaine has entered onto the scene in the last year. Within the community we have seen an increase in usage.”

Mr Quinn also claimed more services were needed for substance abusers aged under 18.

“Here at Hydebank if someone presents with a problematic drug use there’s a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach to tackling this,” he said.

“But that isn’t reciprocated out in the community, where we are seeing young people who would be bordering on problematic usage.”

Police, however, have become increasingly alert to the potential threat.

Mark Evans, the PSNI’s Director of Analysis, said cannabis was still the most abused drug in the North, with heavy paramilitary involvement.

But he added: “There has been a change in the market, and analysis that has been done would suggest that cocaine is now more of a problem than it was five years ago. That would reflect wider UK trends in terms of hard drug use.

“In Northern Ireland the levels of abuse are significantly lower than in other parts of the UK and the Republic of Ireland. (But) the trends are now closer to the trends we would see elsewhere than in the past.”

Despite the concerns, no crack cocaine seizures have been made in the North.

A PSNI spokeswoman said: “Police would warn members of the public not to take any drug, and have warned that the use of crack cocaine in particular is highly addictive and dangerous.

“Anyone who has information regarding crack cocaine in Northern Ireland should contact their local police immediately.”