UK drug misuse services spurned

Parents from south Asian communities whose children misuse drugs
are more likely to send them back to their country of origin than
to obtain treatment in the UK, according to research from a London
primary care trust.

Hounslow primary care trust in west London found that some parents
paid for private treatment or enforced their own home detox for
fear of stigmatising their families.

Harpreet Rai, manager at Hounslow PCT, said parents’ unwillingness
to acknowledge drug misuse in their communities remained one of the
major barriers to obtaining services.