UK: Street prices of Heroin plummet as use reaches epidemic levels

Specialists also disclosed that the potentially lethal practice known as " speedballing", in which users inject themselves with a mixture of heroin and cocaine, is reaching epidemic levels.

The low prices of many drugs suggests that they are readily available throughout the country and that police and customs are losing the war on drugs.

A new survey of 20 cities and towns in the UK provides an insight into emerging trends, offering a level of local detail rarely seen before. The report by the charity DrugScope found that dealers have been increasingly offering cut-price drugs, with heroin costing £5 a bag in Middlesbrough, and ecstasy as little as 75p a tablet in Cardiff.

Towns such as Gloucester and Penzance - where the price of heroin has dropped from £60 to £40 a gram during the past year - are being targeted with "special offers" to attract new users.

The survey also found that abuse of muscle-enhancing anabolic steroids is becoming a mainstream problem.

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