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The New Heroin Users: prevalence and characteristics in Wirral, Merseyside
Author(s) -
PARKER HOWARD,
NEWCOMBE RUSSELL,
BAKX KEITH
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
british journal of addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0952-0481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1987.tb01453.x
Subject(s) - heroin , metropolitan area , population , geography , demography , medicine , environmental health , psychiatry , drug , archaeology , sociology
Summary Outbreaks of illicit opioid use have been occurring throughout the U.K. during the 1980's, and Merseyside has been particularly affected. This paper reports on the prevalence of known opioid use in Wirral, a metropolitan borough of Merseyside with a population of 339,000 where a heroin ‘epidemic’ began 5 years ago. Using a multi‐agency enumeration technique the annual prevalence of known opioid use during 1984–85 was found to be 4.4 per 1000 of the adult population, which indicates a rapidity and depth of penetration not previously encountered in the U.K. In contrast to the typically London‐based heroin user of the late 1960's and early 1970's, the new heroin users of Wirral are predominantly young, family‐based, unemployed, and socially deprived. These new users also display a strong preference for smoking heroin. Their profile is compared with that found in other recent local surveys of drug misuse.