Crime correspondent Andrew Turner highlights East Lancashire's drugs problem as the Evening Telegraph launches its Drive Out Drugs campaign

HEROIN'S evil grip has taken a stranglehold on the lives of scores of East Lancashire people.

It's not just addicts who are brought to their knees by the killer, which comes in a small wrap of paper costing as little as £10.

Families and businesses suffer at the hands of burglars forced to steal to feed their addiction. An addict's family and loved ones suffer as they see people turned into hollow shells by their craving. And drugs are responsible for two deaths a week in Lancashire - many the result of methadone, the drug which is supposed to help cure addicts.

The surge in deaths from legally prescribed drugs last week prompted the county's coroners to call for changes to the system of dealing with registered addicts.

But heroin is not just about death. The drug's effects seep into society. According to figures produced by Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw, property stolen by heroin abusers cost £147 per Lancashire household in 1995, the highest figure in the country.

Police made a record amount of heroin seizures in Blackburn and Darwen last year, largely due to the targeting of known dealers.

Heroin is a real problem in Burnley, Nelson and Colne, too, and Rawtenstall's heroin seizures also saw a huge jump in 1996/97. The problem prompted one user, 23-year-old Brian Real, to claim the only way he could escape from the Rossendale drugs scene was to move out of the area, when he appeared in court on drugs offences.

The Rev Peter Grierson has spoken out about his belief that the growing number of prostitutes and burglaries in his parish is directly linked to a rise in heroin addiction.

And the vicar of St Luke's and St Philip's Church in Blackburn believes the only way to fight rising crime is for people to turn informers.

He said: "Obviously there is some sadness that youngsters are being sucked into heroin addiction, but there is also a lot of anger about the effect addicts are having on the area."

Fellow clergyman Father Jim McCartney works with prostitutes, drug abusers and criminals but told how the voluntary organisation he runs no longer had the resources to cope.

He launched a cash appeal to raise cash for the project and told how the number of youngsters who visit the drop-in centre at St Anne's Church in Blackburn had risen from 25 per day to 85 in four years.

Father McCartney said: "For many young people, Blackburn is nothing more than a prison. They have all their optimism and enthusiasm eaten away by a cocktail of heroin and Temazepam." Acting Detective Chief Inspector Neil Smith, one of the men leading the fight against drugs said: "The problem locally has increased in the last two years, although by just how much is very difficult to measure.

"There has been a noticeable increase in the number of heroin users and the amount of heroin available on the streets. Drug dealers will exploit areas where there is a market and there is a ready market in Blackburn."

So what is being done to combat the problem?

NHS Trust Communicare's new East Lancashire Drug Service (ELDS) provides a new system of methadone treatment for drug users involving "shared care" with the user's GP.

The Trust firmly believes the service, backed by the expertise of consultant psychiatrist Dr Tom Carnwath, represents a significant improvement. It also provides back-up services in Blackburn and Burnley.

Chief Constable Pauline Clare has highlighted the work of the drugs squad in clamping down on abuse.

The force's Choices programme aims to educate schoolchildren about the dangers of drugs so they will shun them as they grow up and considerable work is also being done to combat drugs in local communities.

National Criminal Intelligence Service officers in the North West were responsible for the arrests of 131 major criminals last year and recovered £24.7million worth of drugs. And in Blackburn, officers this week sent 800 letters to homes in the Johnston Street area asking for people help in tackling dealers. Jack Straw has promised a combination of national and local measures to combat drug-related crime.

He said: "As a Lancashire MP, I am very aware of the problem and very concerned to make sure that it is effectively dealt with."

Anyone wanting an incentive to help in the war against drugs need only listen to a mother left mourning the death of her 17-year-old son.

Justin Craven was killed after taking methadone, the heroin substitute. His mum Judith 42, wants her son's death to act as a warning to others.

Only two months after Justin died his father, Robert, collapsed and died in the bath, from a broken heart Judith believes.

Mrs Craven, of Foxdale Close, Bacup, said: "My whole life is a nightmare. I have lost my son and my husband. I cannot sleep at nights thinking of all those big ifs and buts which become giant-sized in the mind.

"There is no end to our nightmare, it will be with us for ever.''

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.