This is Cornwall --
The UK is the "addiction capital of Europe", with some of its highest rates of opiate addiction and dependence on alcohol, a major new report warns.
Alcohol and drug abuse costs the UK £21 billion and £15 billion respectively, and the crisis of increasing addiction is fuelling the breakdown of society, according to the think-tank The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
The CSJ says the UK has become a hub for websites peddling "legal highs" or "club drugs" such as Salvia or Green Rolex, which are ordered online and distributed around the country by postmen and couriers, who unwittingly become drugs mules. People can also buy class A drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine from mail order sites.
The CSJ criticised the government for what it called an "inadequate response to heroin addiction", saying that more than 40,000 drug addicts in England had been stranded on the substitute methadone, which is used to wean addicts off heroin. The report also highlighted the spiralling rate of alcohol-related hospital admissions in England, which it says have doubled in a decade, and warns that Britain is facing "an epidemic of drink-related conditions".
Christian Guy, director of the CSJ, said: "While our addiction problem damages the economy, it is the human consequences that present the real tragedy. Drug and alcohol abuse fuels poverty and deprivation, leading to family breakdown and child neglect, homelessness, crime, debt and long-term worklessness.
"From its impact on children to its consequences for pensioners, dependency destroys lives, wrecks families and blights communities."
The CSJ's report, No Quick Fix, found that the UK has Europe's highest rate of addiction to opiates, such as heroin, and the highest lifetime-use of amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy. More young people have used "legal highs", or new psychoactive substances (NPS), in the UK than anywhere else in Europe, representing a quarter of the European total. Reported by This is 18 hours ago.
The UK is the "addiction capital of Europe", with some of its highest rates of opiate addiction and dependence on alcohol, a major new report warns.
Alcohol and drug abuse costs the UK £21 billion and £15 billion respectively, and the crisis of increasing addiction is fuelling the breakdown of society, according to the think-tank The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
The CSJ says the UK has become a hub for websites peddling "legal highs" or "club drugs" such as Salvia or Green Rolex, which are ordered online and distributed around the country by postmen and couriers, who unwittingly become drugs mules. People can also buy class A drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine from mail order sites.
The CSJ criticised the government for what it called an "inadequate response to heroin addiction", saying that more than 40,000 drug addicts in England had been stranded on the substitute methadone, which is used to wean addicts off heroin. The report also highlighted the spiralling rate of alcohol-related hospital admissions in England, which it says have doubled in a decade, and warns that Britain is facing "an epidemic of drink-related conditions".
Christian Guy, director of the CSJ, said: "While our addiction problem damages the economy, it is the human consequences that present the real tragedy. Drug and alcohol abuse fuels poverty and deprivation, leading to family breakdown and child neglect, homelessness, crime, debt and long-term worklessness.
"From its impact on children to its consequences for pensioners, dependency destroys lives, wrecks families and blights communities."
The CSJ's report, No Quick Fix, found that the UK has Europe's highest rate of addiction to opiates, such as heroin, and the highest lifetime-use of amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy. More young people have used "legal highs", or new psychoactive substances (NPS), in the UK than anywhere else in Europe, representing a quarter of the European total. Reported by This is 18 hours ago.