Special report by JOHN HORNE

IT is every parent's worst nightmare. Something that happens to other people - but not to you.

Yet, as the figures for addiction, drug-related crime and overdoses continue to climb, more parents than ever are having to accept the fact that their children are drug abusers or addicts.

It is no longer a problem confined to the inner cities.

Drugs are everywhere, in Britain's villages and leafy suburbs.

In the nineties it is almost impossible for a child to grow up without having an awareness of drugs - or access to them.

No matter how intelligent or "normal" they might appear many teenagers will experiment.

And many, once started, will be unable to stop. A QUARTER of Bolton secondary school pupils under the age of 16 admit to having used illegal drugs.

Police chiefs and education officials acknowledge that the numbers of children being dragged into the sordid world is increasing.

The main thrust of efforts to combat Bolton's growing drugs menace is aimed at the young - the potential addicts and the drug abusers of tomorrow.

Police have targeted school children as young as 13 to destroy the spiralling demand for narcotics.

The shock tactics of past campaigns have been rejected in favour of classroom lessons on why drugs destroy lives and the need for children not to get involved.

Drug offences among the under 21s have risen by almost a quarter in just two years.

In the UK as a whole, four out of five 16-year-olds have tried at least one illegal drug and children as young as nine know where to buy them.

Teachers say drug abuse is rife among children and the problem has to be tackled urgently.

Former Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley said: "Young people have to be better informed about the risks so they can resist pressure - from their peers or other quarters.

"We must discourage as many as we can from even trying drugs and prevent those who may have experimented from going on to regular use."

Recent surveys in Bolton have echoed national trends.

A survey of 206 pupils - aged 13-14 - at two Bolton secondary schools last year revealed that 25 per cent had used an illegal drug and 60 per cent had seen them.

Seventeen per cent of the children admitted having used cannabis and six per cent LSD.

A previous survey in 1993 showed that only 12 per cent had used an illegal drug and 42 per cent of the 1,761 secondary school pupils surveyed had seen an illegal drug.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.