Pubdate: Sun, 21 Sep 2003
Source: Observer, The (UK)
Copyright: 2003 The Observer
Contact:  http://www.observer.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315
Author: Stephen Khan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)

ECSTASY AND CRACK FLOURISH IN THE NATION'S RURAL IDYLLS

The death of Jade Slack laid bare the massive drug problem in rural areas. 
Stephen Khan, Scotland editor, reports on a grim situation in the far north

It was known locally as the rhubarb village. Nowhere were the sweet, earthy 
flavours of an idyllic English summer more tangible than in Galgate, 
Lancashire. Those days have gone now. Fine fruit is history. Ecstasy 
dealers and juvenile drug tragedies have arrived.

The grim reality of life in rural Britain was laid bare last week when a 
Manchester court heard how 10-year-old Jade Slack became the country's 
youngest ecstasy victim. She took five of the deadly pills when left in the 
care of her parents' friends in Galgate and, as she clung to life, one of 
them continued dealing his lethal ware.

At the same time, hundreds of miles away, Scottish police were planning a 
raid on a school that would paint a picture of the far north few 
holidaymakers used to heather, hairy cows and tartan would recognise. 
Cannabis is rife among the Highland hills, and schoolchildren there are 
exposed to it more often than their contemporaries further south.

In rural communities across Britain a crisis normally associated with urban 
centres is festering underneath the surface. Class A stock is filtering in 
from nearby urban centres and micro-economies often specialising in one 
specific type of stimulant are flourishing in villages where teenagers have 
little to do. Heroin and crack are finding their way down hedge-lined 
country lanes.

In Galgate, though, ecstasy is plentiful. A thin veil of stone houses, 
narrow streets and a restored mill house present a facade that has lured 
commuters from larger towns and cities in the north-west and forced up 
house prices by 30 per cent in the last two years. It looks like the ideal 
place to bring up young children.

Outside a supermarket which Jade Slack walked past every day until her life 
ended so abruptly in July last year, a pair of tracksuited young villagers 
admitted that the drug scene remains rife.

Research has revealed that the wider area around Galgate officially has a 
drug problem to rival that of Manchester and Liverpool, but is without the 
extensive support services and networks on offer in the big cities. 
Morecambe Bay is home to 1,088 drugs users who are registered as receiving 
treatment. That compares with just over 2,000 in the whole of Liverpool and 
3,500 in Manchester.

Indeed the west end of Morecambe is the hub of rural Lancashire's illicit 
substance scene. Kiss-me-quick hats and sticks of rock can still be bought 
on the seafront, but the town has seen a doubling of annual drug-related 
deaths to nearly 60 in the last five years. And on the streets that have 
until now been dominated by heroin, a crack scene is also developing.

These new markets represent a new challenge for drug workers battling to 
draw attention to what they say is a forgotten problem. The campaign and 
outreach group Drugscope is battling for public money to build initiatives 
in rural areas. A spokeswoman said: 'People think drugs and they think 
London, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow. But heroin, ecstasy and cocaine 
don't just stop at the edge of the estates - they go wherever there is 
demand. And in rural areas the demand is high.'

Further north the experience is similar. With its vast open spaces and 
famed wildlife the Highlands of Scotland might seem like the perfect place 
to escape the troubles of modern life. Yet last week police revealed that 
schoolchildren in the far north are more likely to be offered illegal drugs 
than those anywhere else in the UK.

Of 15-year-olds questioned, 70 per cent had been approached by dealers and 
24 per cent had dabbled with some form of illicit substance. The results 
were announced just after teams of officers carried out raids on the 
secondary school in the town of Fortrose on the remote Black Isle in the 
far north-east. They seized a substantial haul of cannabis resin, and 
charges have been brought against a 16-year-old pupil.

Support teams, though, say cannabis is the tip of the iceberg. The far 
north, and in particular coastal Scotland, has become a haven for heroin. 
In towns such as Peterhead and Fraserburgh, smack habits are commonplace 
among young fishermen and, with the industry in decline, many locals fear a 
crimewave could be about to hit shore as steady incomes sink into the North 
Sea.

In the wake of Jade Slack's death anti-drug operations in Galgate and 
neighbouring Lancaster were stepped up and police made 200 arrests - one of 
those arrested was the little girl's father, although no charges were 
brought against him.

But a year on, little has changed. The supply chain that led Jade to her 
grave found new routes into the village. Wayne Wood was a middle-ranking 
dealer who sold ecstasy. The 22-year-old and his then partner Rebecca 
Hodgson were supposed to be looking after Jade for their friends Simon and 
Beverly Slack.

But even as Jade lay dying after swallowing five tablets she called 'happy 
pills', Wood was working a well-served market where different grades sell 
from between UKP1 and UKP15 each. Dealing has earned him a three-and-a-half 
year prison term, but locals say he has been rapidly replaced by others 
answering to a handful of key operators in Lancaster and Morecambe.

His ex-partner's grandmother revealed the extent of the problem. 'I hope 
this stirs something up in Galgate and they find out who Woody was getting 
his drugs off and who he was working for,' said Dorothy Hodgson.

More than a year after Galgate was propelled on to television screens, 
village councillor Helen Helme admitted drugs were still in circulation. 'A 
lot of parents shut their eyes to it and think they live in a quiet village 
and it does not happen here which is so sad, because it does,' she said. 
'The village is not moving on yet as far as I can see.'
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