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A new government database of drug services will reveal a surprisingly high number of young opiate users, a conference has heard today, writes Simeon Brody.

Tom Aldridge, young person’s manager for the National Treatment Agency, predicted the national drugs treatment monitoring service, currently being piloted, would surprise people by showing the true number of young opiate users in drug treatment programmes.

Aldridge told the drugs and alcohol today conference in London that, as substance misuse services targeted at young people became more established, there were likely to receive more self-referrals from those currently not accessing support such as homeless people and sex workers.

The true demand for young people’s substance misuse services had probably been underestimated because of a lack of robust local needs analysis, he argued.

“How can we have a high adult drug population but no young people using drugs,” he said.

He predicted the waiting time target for young people’s drug and alcohol services would be set at a maximum of three weeks.