A year ago the Evening Press told the story of a John, a heroin addict, who, with the help of his family, went through 'cold turkey' to beat his habit. Now he is fighting the hardest battle of all; to change his life, stay clean and rebuild the shattered bond of trust with his family.

But John's story is ultimately one of hope and his message is simple, addiction is not a death sentence.

John used to live from day to day and fix to fix, but now he talks animatedly about his life and plans for the future.

He has a new job, moved from York to a new home in Harrogate, and within a month of kicking his habit had put on three stones.

"You never plan ahead when you're on smack so even if you have two £10 bags you don't think this will last me tomorrow you just do them there and then," said John.

"I think I finally managed to get off it because I missed my old life and was tired of feeling crappy all the time.

"But until I got arrested and my parents confronted me I was totally in denial.

"I had let down my family, my friends and my workmates but I don't think it was until I saw my dad crying I that I finally knew heroin and the life it was leading me had to stop." Despite his addiction, John had managed to keep his job in a factory, although he admits it was getting to be touch and go and when he looks back on what he did to feed his addiction it scares him.

"I didn't ever get involved in any serious crime - keeping my job meant I could usually afford to get some drugs without have to steal too much," he said.

"But when I think about some of the stuff I did and how easily I could have been caught my heart still pounds and I feel sick with it.

"I always used clean needles, but I used to inject cocktails of all sorts of stuff including crack and cyclizine and there were times when the effects scared the hell out of me - although never enough stop doing it again.

"Then there is the shame.

"A couple of times I stole from my parents and I find it hard to come to terms with that. After all the things they have done for me and the way they have stood by me it was the ultimate disrespect."

The risks John ran were clearly brought home to him.

He saw a friend die after taking ecstasy and another friend ended up serving nine months in prison after his drug use led him to trouble with the law.

"One of my friends, who was also a heroin addict, managed to get clean but then he lost his job," said John.

"He didn't go back to heroin, but started doing amphetamines and got into crime.

"Once he began he was like a totally different person and eventually he got done for going equipped to steal.

"I visited him while he was inside and he did get clean. Now he's out and seems to have got a job and put the drugs behind him but he's always got that prison sentence against him now."

John and his family faced his addiction head on - they decided they could not wait the months it would take to get him into treatment - so he went through withdrawal in the family's suburban home.

"People are scared of going cold turkey because your body lies to you and tells you you'll never be able to get through it - but you can," said John

"It is difficult but its not impossible.

"I'm not saying everyone can do it just with their family like I did.

"I think I'm very lucky because I've got such a good family, who stood by me.

"I wouldn't disown anyone who was on drugs because I think that just makes them worse.

Names have been changed to protect the anonymity of the family.

What can be done to get drug users off our streets?

Hundreds of dirty needles are picked up by council workers in York city centre each month and the problem is now so bad free staff training is being offered to businesses on how to deal with used syringes.

In recent years York has seen three drug deaths in public and shop toilets, and individuals and businesses have long being asking what more can be done.

They say needles in the street do not only pose a risk to health but create a poor impression of the city to investors and tourists.

So what more can be done to clean up the streets?

Various ideas have been put forward, including legalising heroin and setting up a consumption room, but all have moral, ethical and some times legal implications.

Privately police officers say they despair of finding a solution through enforcement alone and fear all they can do is move the problem from one alley to another.

"You would never have heard me say this five years ago I was all for locking them all up," one told the Evening Press.

"But now I think we do need to look at some sort of a consumption centre so they can get help and we can get them off the streets.

"It may not be the perfect solution but at least they would be in touch with some sort of help and not dying in toilets and leaving their syringes all over the place."

DC Paul Johnson, Central Area police drugs co-ordinator, takes a pragmatic approach to the idea.

"If you always do what you've always done you'll always get what you've always got," he said.

"We have to be willing to look to the successful schemes being operated abroad and see if they could form the basis of an appropriate and effective scheme here."

North Yorkshire drug tsar Hugo Luck also believes it is vital to keep an open mind.

But he said there had been a dramatic increase in the return rate of used syringes through a poster campaign and drugs workers targeting problem clients.

"We have now had 30 years of the Misuse of Drugs Act and locking people up and yet drug use is still rising," he said.

"There is now a multi-agency response and it is acknowledged that dumped syringes are not a problem for any one agency.

"The research done on consumption rooms so far has taken place in Holland and Germany, which have different patterns of drug use and different health care systems so we could not just lift the current schemes and drop them in the centre of York."

Kathy Stone, of the Compass drug resource scheme, which runs a needle exchange, said that handing out syringes had proved an effective way of stopping needle-born infections including HIV and hepatitis running rife among drug users.

But she sympathises with the reaction of people who come across needles.

"It's a burgeoning problem and attempting to change behaviour is a constant headache for us," she said.

"Leaving needles in the streets is irresponsible and I think some of it must come down to laziness.

"We are looking creatively at all the options because it is not acceptable for people to be finding these syringes lying around and we are considering introducing syringes that retract the needle once they have been used.

"As with most drug-related issues it is a choice between a variety of evils."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.