A huge proportion of offenders signing up to a drugs referral scheme at Basildon police station are heroin users, the head of the project has revealed.

Ian Swift, who runs the scheme, also noted the increasing tendency for participants to be users of freebase cocaine, otherwise known as crack.

Mr Swift made his remarks during Wednesday night's meeting of Basildon Police and Community Consultative Group, held at the Wick Community Centre in Wickford.

Under the scheme, offenders who are brought into Basildon police station are offered the chance of advice and treatment for drug problems.

Mr Swift said since the start of the scheme last year, he had interviewed a total of 693 offenders. Of these, he had assessed 140, of whom 117 agreed to sign up for the programme.

Mr Swift estimated 95 per cent of these had problems with heroin.

He said: "I saw a chap last week whose drug habit cost him £2,500 a week.

"On average it's costing people £450 a week."

Nationally, Mr Swift pointed out the number of people using opiates such as heroin had almost doubled in the space of five years, up from 43,372 in 1996 to roughly 80,000 this year.

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