A SIGNIFICANT rise in the number of cases of young people from Thurrock requiring hospital treatment has been recorded.

Public Health England has released the latest figures on hospital admissions due to substance misuse for those aged 15 to 24. NHS hospitals across the East of England have had to deal with almost 1,500 admission episodes of kids and young adults between 2016-2018; almost twice as many than they faced a decade ago.

The service states the figures are representative of hospital admissions where the primary diagnosis could be mental and behavioural disorders due to either opioids (like Heroin), cannabinoids (like THC), sedatives (like alcohol and Xanax), cocaine, hallucinogens (like LSD and Ketamine) and psychoactive substances like Spice.

In Thurrock the number of cases has almost double, it has risen from 14 to 25, an increase of 78 per cent which puts it among the highest in the East of England.

Nuno Albuquerque, Group Treatment Lead at addiction firm UKAT says: "These figures are extremely concerning, especially because they won't paint the whole picture. There'll be countless more children and young adults living across the East of England misusing drugs without the need for hospitalisation; this report shows the worst outcomes of when kids 'experiment' with drugs.

"Drug misuse at such an early age of life can result in real long-term physical and social problems; not only are they negatively altering the way their brain grows and develops, but they could miss out on education, develop limited and stinted human relationships, become withdrawn from society and turn to crime to fund their habit.

"It's imperative that a significant proportion of the annual Public Health Grant is allocated next month by Councils across the East to educating and engaging with children in schools to prevent future generations from misusing drugs.

"Given the current Coronavirus crisis, society should be doing everything it can to ease the pressure on the NHS at this incredibly difficult time, and that means investing in preventative steps to reduce the number of kids needing hospitalising because of drugs in the future."

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