My cocaine girl's plea for help goes unheeded

The plea comes as police and drug experts reveal the use of cocaine is on the increase in the region.

The woman, who has asked not to be named, is angry that she has been unable to get treatment for her daughter following her overdose last week.

She is also calling for more action to be taken to prevent cocaine getting into the hands of young people, amid fears the drug is becoming cheaper and easier to buy in the region.

The woman says her daughter became addicted to cocaine very quickly, and bought it at nightclubs in Teesside and County Durham.

She has expressed a desire to kick the habit and is now under 24-hour supervision at the family home in the Darlington area.

"What has upset me the most was the fact there was no help available for my daughter when she needed it most," she said.

"I can understand how stretched the NHS is, and how some people would say my daughter's illness was self-inflicted, but when people like her are crying out for help, they should be given it.

"We telephoned every detoxification centre within a 200-mile radius of Darlington and could not find anyone who could provide specialist medical help to cocaine addicts."

A spokesman for the British Professional Ambulance Consortium has reinforced the claim that cocaine is becoming more readily available in the North-East.

A wrap of the drug can be bought for as little as £15, when it was once sold for about £50.

"Young people are buying the drugs in nightclubs and then mixing it with alcohol. This amounts to a Molotov cocktail of suicide."

David Cliff, coordinator of the Darlington and County Durham Drug Action Team, said there has been an increase in cocaine usage, but the drug is still dwarfed by heroin, which can often be bought for the price of a pint of beer.

A spokesman for Durham Police said: "It does seem that cocaine is becoming a fashionable drug in the clubs and pubs and is now more affordable."

nshaeferington and County Durham Drug Action