More kids living in shadow of heroin

MORE than 75,000 children are living with drug-addicted parents battling heroin cravings.

Parents are coming forward at a rate of 50 every day to get methadone to help wean them off their habit, according to new figures from Public Health England.

Almost 68,000 adults with “parental responsibilities” were last year recorded as using methadone in a bid to help them kick their addiction.

Around two-thirds of the addict parents are living with their children, and many of them look after big families with five or more children. It means more than

75,000 children live in homes where at least one of the parents needs a daily dose of a prescribed drug as a replacement for an illegal fix.

This is the highest ever recorded, and up five per cent in the last two years from 64,486.

More than 6,000 people in the UK have been stuck on heroin substitutes for 10 years or more, unable to beat their addiction.

It is estimated that it costs the state

£3,000 per person every year to fund their use of medicines such as methadone, but the real cost to the nation comes in welfare handouts and healthcare costs.

In December 2014, the parents of two-year-old Sophie Jones were each jailed for eight years. They were convicted of her manslaughter when she accidentally drank her mother’s methadone at their home in Blackpool. Bob Geldof’s daughter Peaches, who died in 2014, had been using methadone to come off her drug habit before being found with a syringe of heroin by her side. Her baby son was found in another room. Anastasia de Waal, deputy director at the think-tank Civitas, said: “Living with methadone can be very difficult… Crucially, there is evidence that, on balance, a methadone-receiving parent is in a significantly better parenting position than an opiate-dependent parent.” Rosanna O’Connor, director of drugs, alcohol and tobacco at Public Health England, said: “Medicines such as methadone can provide all drugs users, including those with parental responsibilities, the stability and safety to build their recovery, helping prevent the often chaotic lifestyle associated with drug use.”