Hyndburn among worst places in the UK for heroin deaths
HYNDBURN has been named among the country’s worst 10 blackspots for deaths from heroin abuse.
The borough recorded an ‘appalling’ average death rate of 5.7 deaths from heroin and morphine per 100,000 population - the sixth highest rate in England and Wales, according to a report by the Office for National Statistics.
The figure - based on deaths in 2016 - is more than three times the national average, while the death toll in Hyndburn from misuse of the drugs was 13 in the preceding two-year period.
Huncoat councillor Eamonn Higgins, a para- medic and former chairman of Hyndburn’s Health and Communities Working group, said he sees only too often the increase in heroin misuse in Hyndburn.
He said: “It’s definitely a big problem in the borough. Several times a week we are called out to people who have overdosed.
“In most cases we are able to administer an antidote and the person recovers but sometimes it’s too late, with fatal consequences and the devastating effects on that person’s family.”
Deaths were included where the underlying cause was due to drug poisoning and where heroin and/or morphine was mentioned on the death certificate.
Andrea Adamson, 55, has spoken out against the dangers of drug abuse since her son Adam Cowell died in November 2016 from a lethal amount of cocaine.
Andrea, of Haworth Street, Oswaldtwistle, said: “To think drugs are so easily available is horrifying. Maybe because there’s a despondence in the town - is there any wonder why they get into drugs?
“There’s nothing for the young ones to do - no jobs, empty shops, no town centre and no hope. Poverty contributes to people getting down.”
Andrea bravely fronted the Accrington Observer’s campaign, launched in 2016, against cocaine use in the borough after we revealed that at least 17 people in the local area had lost their lives to the drug in the preceding months.
Analysis by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has concluded that a ‘deepening of socio-economic deprivation since the financial crisis of 2008’ was a possible factor in rising drugrelated deaths.
Josh Allen runs Hyndburn-based community group the Walmsley Foundation, which comes into contact with a lot of vul- nerable people.
He said: “We’re a deprived area and there are a lot of young people looking for an escape. I definitely think there is a correlation between drugs and poverty. It’s appalling - but it’s not a surprise.”
Josh says that many people with drug problems often won’t turn to anyone for help until it is too late.
He added: “There’s some support, but not directed enough - you have to look hard to find these groups. More needs to be done to tell people that there are people who are willing to talk, listen and help.”
The ONS report referred to the ‘Trainspotting Generation’, which became addicted to heroin in the 1980s and 1990s, as a possible explanation for why the highest rate of death from drugs misuse was among 40 to 49-year-olds. The two highest death rates in England and Wales were recorded in Blackpool and Burnley.