Brighton and Hove "too dangerous" for recovering drug addicts

Although 22-year-old Hannah has been “clean” for nine months as she recovers in a South African treatment centre, her mum Kate says it would be too dangerous for her daughter to come back to the city where she grew up.

Kate said Brighton and Hove holds too many “trigger points” which could tempt her pretty daughter to take drugs again.

Hannah, who agreed to be shown injecting heroin into her feet for a hard-hitting documentary about Brighton’s drug scene, flew to South Africa shortly after filming finished.

Kate, an interior designer, has given Hannah money to buy heroin in the past to ensure her daughter did not steal or turn to other means to get drugs.

She has also spent more than £15,000 on Hannah’s drug treatment.

She now believes that if Hannah had not gone to South Africa she might never have recovered.

Kate, from Seven Dials, Brighton, said: “She has been in drug rehabilitation for just over ten months and has now been clean for nine of them.

“I am so proud of her but it’s early days and she is still fragile.

“Understandably she doesn't feel she wants to come back to Brighton and remember that whole scene and those hard memories. It would be too dangerous for her.

“People assume people like myself won’t have a heroin addict for a daughter. I put my head above the parapet and said ‘I do - and you could too’.

“The first time I went to visit Hannah I didn’t recognise her. I thought, ‘Who is that pretty blonde girl and what is she doing here?’.

“She had sparkle in her eyes, where they used to be dead, and she had found her smile again.”

But Kate expressed her disappointment at drug rehabilitation services in Britain.

She said: “She has tried to leave the centre in South Africa on several occasions and they have said no and kept her under 24-hour watch and talked her through how she is feeling.

“Within hours she has called me and said ‘Mum I’m so glad I didn’t go’.

“This country fails addicts. Because of our rules on human rights Hannah was always able to walk away and abscond and carry on using.”

The Argus first revealed Hannah’s story in April 2007.

At just 18 she ran in to St Nicholas Church in Brighton during a service and told her mum she needed help because she was addicted to the deadly drug.

A year later she admitted she had considered taking her own life.

At one point unemployed drug addict Hannah was able to walk into a local bank and ask for an overdraft of £50.

Instead she was told she could have a £1,200 loan. She spent the money on heroin and overdosed three weeks later.

Kate says that while she will never know if the treatment in South Africa is a miracle cure but said she had lost faith in drug policies in this country.

Figures released earlier this year revealed Sussex has one of the worst records in the country for getting drug addicts fast access to treatment.

Department of Health figures reveal that one in three addicts in West Sussex and one in four in Brighton and Hove had to wait more than three weeks to get on a treatment programme in 2008.

East Sussex did slightly better, with only one in five being forced to wait so long.

It means a total of 510 of the 2,004 addicts treated across the county in 2007/ 8, mainly for heroin and crack use, faced worrying delays in getting help after agreeing to fight their addictions.

The proportion of addicts forced to wait more than three weeks in West Sussex - 38% - was the second highest in England behind Torbay in Devon.

Brighton and Hove, on 25%, was among the worst ten drug action team areas.

Meanwhile Brighton and Hove is the drug death capital of England.

Substance misuse bosses last night defended their services.

Graham Stevens, the coordinator of Brighton and Hove Drug and Alcohol Action Team, explained that the number of addicts starting treatment within three weeks had increased last year but because of a surge in the number of addicts being treated, the proportion treated quickly had fallen.

Mr Stevens said: “In 2007/08 we helped more people than ever before to reduce their intake or stop taking drugs.

“This is not just about people starting treatment. We need that treatment to work. Brighton and Hove does better than the national average for the numbers successfully completing treatment.”

An NHS Brighton and Hove spokesman said: “In Brighton and Hove people with substance misuse problems who need to use the prescribing and residential rehabilitation service are seen within the recommended waiting times from the National Treatment Agency and NICE which is that 85% of clients are able to access treatment within 3 weeks.

“To reduce waiting times for counselling for substance misuse problems we have now commissioned an increase in the counselling service through CRI to ensure as many people as possible successfully complete their treatment and Brighton and Hove does better than the national average for this.”

On the issue of whether addicts should be forcibly detained in rehabilitation centres, Brighton Pavilion MP David Lepper said: “It is a difficult balance between the rights of the individual and the needs of the treatment and service providers - they might have different thoughts on what’s right or wrong.”

Kate recalls the multiple times Hannah was able to walk away from drug centres and go back to scoring heroin.

As a result she has campaigned tirelessly for heroin to be prescribed to addicts to help make sure dangerous chemicals are not mixed with it.

She said: “Most of the ill health associated with the drug is to do with what’s added to it.

”If you prescribe it you take the crime, the ill health and things like needle sharing out of it.”

She recently made her case before a packed audience at Cambridge Union Society in Cambridge and not only won the motion in the face of challenges from a policy advisor on drugs for the White House but also a standing ovation from the crowd.

She said: “The politician challenging my motion said there were instances of occasional, recreational use of heroin – those three words could never occur in the same sentence.”

Kate says she wants to save Hannah from drugs - whatever the cost.

She said: “I am more than aware that Hannah is extremely lucky, we took out a loan of £15,000 for her to do this and now that bill is much, much more.

“I know many other young people will not have that opportunity - I just wish this country could do more for them, so it wasn’t a question of money.”