Dealers are ‘flooding pubs with deadly drug’
PUBS and bars in Accrington are being flooded with cocaine, a drug treatment charity has warned.
Pete Yarwood, chief officer at Red Rose Recovery, claims you can go into some pubs in Hyndburn on any given week-night there will 10 people using the powder – and the problem is worse at weekends.
He described a drug so readily available that it can be delivered to your door within 10 minutes of a call to a dealer. He also warned that children as young as 14 are experimenting with cocaine. Mr Yarwood made the shocking claims as he backed the Observer’s Killer Cocaine: Stop the Deaths campaign.
The so-called party drug that has been responsible for the deaths of at least 17 young people in the Hyndburn area over the last nine months. It is thought the real number is actually much higher.
Mr Yarwood said: “It’s an epidemic. People are telling me you can go into pubs or bars in Accrington and there will be 10 people using it, and on a weekend everybody is [snorting it off their] keys.
“They see it as ‘just a bit of sniff’ but don’t know the true danger of it.
“I was quite shocked to hear that you can make a phone call and within 10 minutes a gram for about £30 or £40, can be delivered to your door.
“There is a lot of it about.”
Mr Yarwood said there is a widespread attitude towards cocaine that it is ‘glamorous’.
He said: “People see it as a glamorised drug, a party drug, something that will keep them going for longer on a night out and something to aspire to.
“You have 14 or 15-yearolds at parties who think ‘my mate is having it, I can have a few snorts and I will alright’, but that’s not the case.
“Not everyone is as tolerant to it and it can have a devastating affect. People don’t realise the damage that can have on your kidneys, on your brain. I know of one guy, it’s melted the inside of his nose.”
Mr Yarwood, a former heroin addict, said that many of those using cocaine on a regular basis do not consider themselves addicts.
He said: “They think ‘this won’t overtake my life, I can maintain a job and family’, but it’s not the case and very quickly their tolerance is high and soon they are addicted.
“It grabs you when you are living in the moment, not thinking of your rent bill or food bills, and pushes you into chaos.”