MORE and more youngsters in Brighton and Hove are getting hooked on hard drugs and alcohol, according to new research. Now a new scheme is being launched to try to wean hardened drug users away from their habit. JAMES MORRISON talks to its co-ordinator and meets two young girls who stand to benefit.

WHEN Tasha and PJ had their first taste of life on the streets they saw nothing ahead but the promise of freedom.

After years of problems at home the girls wanted nothing more than to escape the confines of family life.

But running away from home did anything but solve their problems.

What started out as a wide-eyed adventure soon descended into a cycle of crime and drug abuse.

PJ, 15, from Brighton, said: "I first started shoplifting when I met a girl in Hove and we used to go on train journeys and nick things like sweets to take with us.

"It just built up and up, and I couldn't get enough. I was sort of addicted to it because I always wanted more than I had.

"Because I was getting in trouble with the police, my mum was always crying and my dad was always shouting at me, so I wanted to escape and forget about things.

"Then I found drugs, including heroin. I used to inject it and the buzz goes straight to your head.

"It meant I could forget everything that was happening around me. Everyone is lecturing you and it all builds up, so when that pressure goes it feels so nice and relaxing.

"We started running away from home every so often too, and when you're on the streets taking heroin helps to keep you warm."

Tasha, 14, first experimented with drugs at the tender age of nine.

She said: "I started smoking hash when I was nine. Then I went on to gas, Valium, speed and heroin.

"My mum's boyfriend used to have hash in the house so I would steal it and smoke it.

"Then I ran away from home at the age of 12 or 13. I ended up in squats and friends' houses, and that's when I started taking heroin.

"It used to give me a good buzz, so I used to take it if it was around, but I only bought it once or twice."

Within a short while Tasha and PJ graduated to heavy duty street crime to fund their drug-taking.

At first they stole Action Men and other toys to buy £20 bags of heroin, but before long they were mugging foreign students with 4in kitchen knives.

PJ says: "We would never mug old ladies, it was normally foreign students.

"They have more money and they leave their bags lying around on the beach, or they bang into you and you use that as an excuse to cause a fight.

"It started out because we needed the money, but after a while we were mugging people for fun."

Tasha adds: "It was the easy thing to do. Seven of us were living in someone's one-bedroom flat once when we'd run away, and there was a day when we had no electricity or food and our clothes were dirty."

From time to time both Tasha and PJ, who are currently nearing the end of 18-month supervision orders, returned home.

Both recall clearly the times their parents first realised they were involved in drugs.

PJ's mother noticed an abscess on her daughter's arm and Tasha's became suspicious of her sudden lapses into stupor.

But while both girls grew increasingly aware of the harmful effects of drug abuse, they remained seduced by the lifestyle it brought with it - even when confronted with its most horrifying consequences.

PJ explains: "Most of the friends we made on the streets were quite a bit older than us and two of them died within a really short space of time.

"One was about to celebrate his 21st birthday so we were going to get in some cider and have a drink, but he died before we could.

"Then, on the day of his funeral, we heard that another one, who was in Scotland, had overdosed.

"The thing is, you don't really think about it when something like that happens. All you think about is all this stuff around you that you want to forget, and you keep taking it."

After five years of drugs and crime,Tasha and PJ say they still aren't fully convinced by the alternative.

But both are willing to give the straight and narrow a try, especially now they are being offered help through a pioneering new initiative.

Straight Up has just been launched jointly by Brighton and Hove social services, South Downs Health NHS Trust's drug advice and information service, and voluntary group PHASE (Personal Help with Alcohol and Substance Experiences).

The project, which starts this spring, will focus on youngsters aged 13 to 16 - making it one of the first in the UK to be dedicated exclusively to children. It will take the form of a 12-week course aimed at raising awareness of the risks of drug and drink abuse and unsafe sex.

But rather than using a traditional approach to discouraging drug use it will encourage a more active input from the children. They will be invited to exchange their drug and drink experiences and taken on social outings designed to show them a realistic alternative.

Co-ordinator Alex Cooter says the idea is to swap the preaching style of old for a more practical one. She said: "This isn't a group which is going to say, 'Don't do drugs: they're really bad for you'. It's about offering structured exercises and leaving the children to reach their own conclusions.

"The social aspect is very important because girls like Tasha and PJ are very isolated and marginalised.

"Ideally we want people to lead safer, happier, more healthy lives and obviously that would mean reducing or stopping their drug use. But even if we make them think about using them more safely, and not mixing them so much, that would be good.

"Young people are much more likely to respect not being lectured, but being given information and allowed to exchange among themselves their own experiences."

She added that giving the youngsters access to computers, a gym and pool tables, and taking them on activities like tenpin bowling, were designed to show them they could enjoy leisure time without resorting to drink or drugs.

At present, Straight Up's referrals come largely through its links with the youth justice system, but its organisers also hope to reach others not yet known to the police.

Tasha and PJ aren't holding out for an instant cure to their drug problems but they are optimistic about Straight Up.

PJ said: "I'm back at school again now, and I want this to work. I can read, write and spell, and so can Tasha. We've just let ourselves go down.

"I want to get an education because I want a family, a house and all that.

"Sometimes I think, 'You're never going to change', but other times I think, 'I'm intelligent enough. I can do it'."

Contact Straight Up in confidence on 01273 296156.

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