"Devastation - that's the only word to describe it."
The words of a crack cocaine user in Nottingham whose life has been torn apart by his addiction.
"I've lost everything...my family and my children. I've basically been on my hands and knees crawling round the streets of Nottingham with not even a roof over my head. That's the extreme that the drug has took me to."
The Government has become so concerned about the growing problem of crack abuse that it's organised a national conference to discuss ways of dealing with a potential epidemic.
There have been serious problems in parts of London and Bristol and the increase in violent street crime has been linked to the rise in crack use. Police and drug agencies say crack addicts are more likely to be the perpetrators of violent robbery and that dealers have been involved in vicious turf wars.
One of the main problems is that a crack "high" usually lasts for only a few minutes and the user needs many hits to sustain a habit which can cost thousands of pounds a week.
In a pilot project run by Nottingham police those arrested for burglary, robbery and theft were tested for drug use. Out of 1,400 suspects, around half tested positive for cocaine. Police believe the majority were crack users. In the 12 months to July 2001, drug counsellors in the city dealt with 104 crack users; by the end of last year they had seen a similar number in just five months.
The 91热爆 Office-sponsored conference in Birmingham is looking at ways of dealing with addicts and different treatment programmes.
But according to the man who first warned police about the dangers of crack, it could all be too late.
Thirteen years ago Bob Stutman, a former officer with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency, was invited by the then 91热爆 Secretary Douglas Hurd to talk to UK police officers.
"One of the messages I was trying to give the British officials was that even if you don't have it now my guess is you will have it some day," he said.
"Once you have the problem I never saw any city in the United States that within three or four years was able to contain the problem. If you are now discovering the problem then you are certainly at the very tail end of being able to do anything about it. The trick was to do something about it before you discover the problem."
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