On course for life

THE first time Michael tried heroin he felt he had found what he had been looking for all his life. He was 20, and had been experimenting with various drugs - cannabis first, then LSD, amphetamines and ecstasy - since he was 18. He makes no excuses. He came from a happy, stable home. He was just curious.

That first taste of heroin was different from any of the other drugs he had tried. "It is just like a warm glow all over," he says. "It is like you cannot be hurt, you're in a cocoon. It's just a very, very peaceful feeling."

Also a deceptive one. Although he didn't know it at the time, Michael was already on a road that would lead to such despair he seriously considered ending his own life.

He smoked the heroin at first. Then he found he wasn't getting enough of a hit, and began injecting. "And that was it," the 32-year-old says. "I was hooked."

So began ten years of increasingly desperate addiction. He turned to crime to feed his habit, but his craving just got stronger and stronger. Towards the end, he was injecting up to 12 £10 bags a day. "Every day I was just struggling to get money to pay for it," he says. "It was a 24-hour-a-day job, running about for money, scoring, then going out again. It got to the point where I started to think 'I can't go on. I want to kill myself.'" It was what he calls his 'rock bottom'.

Darren's route into drugs was different. As a boy, he didn't get on with his mum, and repeatedly ran away from home. Eventually, he was sent to a children's home.

Peer pressure got him on to drugs. A friend's older brother introduced him to cannabis, and he fell in with what he thought was a 'good crowd of friends'. By 15, he was using ecstasy and barbiturates. One day, he went out with a 'mate' to buy cannabis. "And they said 'we've got some stuff that's a lot stronger,'" he says. "It was on tin foil, and they was all having it."

At first he refused: but under relentless pressure he gave in.

That was his first experience of heroin. At first he smoked it but then, just like Michael, he began injecting.

He was luckier than Michael, however. Michael was never charged for anything other than possession of cannabis and amphetamines so was never sent to prison.

Darren was and it probably saved him. In prison he spent 20 months on a drugs programme. With the help of medication, he was able to get off drugs. He was even able to pick up a few qualifications. Now 22, he's back outside, and "completely clean".

If he and Michael are to be able to successfully turn their lives around, however, they need the help of organisations such as Compass - the York-based charity which recently opened its new Compass One centre in York's Bridge Street.

After hitting 'rock bottom' a couple of years ago, Michael didn't kill himself. He sought help instead. His doctor put him on methadone to help wean him off heroin and Compass helped him to believe he really could do something with his life.

"I had been using drugs all my adult life," he says. "Stopping was quite frightening. Compass helps you understand where you're at."

For two years now, with Compass' support, he has 'rarely used' drugs at all. For four months, he's been completely clear. And the charity's Progress 2 Work team is now helping him turn his life around in other ways. He's already studied for qualifications in book-keeping and accounting, and with Compass' help he is about to start a computing course.

Darren is also on the Progress 2 Work scheme. The team has helped him decide what he would like to do with his life, and he's now applying, with their help, to do a course in sports and leisure. Ultimately, he would like to be a football or rugby coach.

There is no way, he insists, that he's going to go back to his old life. "Before, I didn't even have a life," he says. "I just had drugs."

Darren and Michael are typical of the hundreds of drug users who turn to Compass every year for help. Carole Bishop, manager of the new Compass One centre in Bridge Street, says something like 500 different people in York and Selby use the needle exchange service - where they can pick up clean needles and also access health advice and support - every year. The number of people out there on the streets with serious drug habits who could benefit from Compass' services, however, is much larger.

When the new centre opened earlier this month it drew criticism from some local business people who claimed it would lead to more "people with drug problems" walking up and down the street.

It's an accusation that angers Compass chief executive Steve Hamer. First, he points out, the centre isn't new at all. Before it moved into its new building, Compass already ran a needle exchange immediately across the road. All the new centre does, he says, is provide more space so the full range of services the charity offers can be brought together under one roof. He also has little time for those who claim drug addicts brought their own misfortune on themselves and should be left to get on with it.

The work that Compass does, he says, is at least as much about protecting the public as helping drug users. The first needle exchanges were set up in the 1980s to reduce the spread of HIV/ AIDS by encouraging safer injecting. The effect was dramatic. In England, figures showed that only about two per cent of injecting drug users became HIV positive. In places such as New York and Spain, where there were no such schemes, infection rates among drug injectors hit almost 60 per cent. When you consider that drug addicts don't confine their sexual behaviour only to other drug users, it is obvious what the benefits to the larger community are.

The other social benefit of helping drug users control their habit is that once it is under control, they are less likely to turn to crime, says Steve. The link between drugs and crime is well-established.

So Steve is not about to apologise for the work Compass does. It is helping drug users to get a life - and benefiting society as well.

The advantage of having the new centre, spread over four floors, is that it can do that job much more effectively. There is far more going on here than simply the needle exchange. That is important - it is often a 'first point of contact' with users who, at the same time as getting clean needles, can be given advice on health and hygiene, says Carole Bishop.

But it is just the beginning.

Compass One also offers counselling and advice, refers users for treatment where appropriate, and, through it's Progress 2 Work scheme, helps them get the training and qualifications they need to make a new start.

It can offer alternative therapies such as acupuncture for those seeking to reduce their drug use, and practical advice for those trying to find a home of their own. There is also a regular support group for worried parents or relatives.

The idea of having all these services together in one place is that users who come in to use the needle exchange service can, hopefully, be guided towards some of the other programmes Compass offers - starting with getting clean needles and access to accurate information about health and hygiene and then moving on to referral for treatment, support groups, and training and support in looking for work and a home.

It is not about condoning drugs use, says Carole - it is about helping people such as Michael and Darren get their lives back under control. It benefits us all if they can.

Some names in this article have been changed. If you are worried about drugs, contact the Compass helpline in confidence on 01904 670046.

Updated: 09:37 Tuesday, May 25, 2004