More than 40 per cent of sex workers who misuse drugs were in care

Forty two per cent of drug misusers involved in the sex trade
have experienced the care system, according to a home office
report, writes Clare Jerrom.

The research into drug misuse and sex work highlighted that
experiences of living in local authority care, running away and
being homeless are strongly linked to a young person’s entry
into prostitution.

The figure is “extraordinary”, the report said, and
is evidence that “looked after children are very vulnerable
to involvement in drug use and sex abuse through
prostitution”.

Speaking at Drugscope’s third national young people and
substance misuse conference in Leeds, home office drugs minister
Caroline Flint said: “It is no ‘Pretty
Woman’.”

She added that the home office was currently looking at the
prostitution issue or particularly “how agencies can work
together to prevent young people getting involved in
prostitution”.