Around 2.6 million young people used an illegal drug in past year, charity finds
At aged 13, Nathan had already started dabbling in drugs.
“I was quite young, started smoking weed with other kids at school. But as the year went on I progressed to harder drugs, class As and all the rest of it.
“It just got really messy,” Nathan explained.
Soon, he would be saving up lunch money to score drugs, and using them in the bathroom while his peers were studying in class.
Nathan, now 20, partly blames the music scene for the exposure after witnessing open drug use while gigging as a teen.
But it soon escalated.
“As I progressed outside that scene, I’d be taking, crack, heroin, whatever else I could get, basically,” he said.
Nathan is now clean and has been for more than 17 months.
He realises now that his drug use was never about partying or having fun with friends, instead he used them to cope and self-medicate to avoid the pain life threw at him.
He added: “It was really a lot of hopelessness. What is the point in this? I didn’t like how I was feeling, and I didn’t know how to word what I was feeling either.
“Instead, it was like this is what I’m going through, and I don’t want to share it. That’s when the harder drugs started.
“It was like, well, I will take this one, and I haven’t got to feel anything.”
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Nathan was one of the lucky ones, he was supported by a charity which addressed his mental health needs, and now has a circle of friends also in recovery, providing a much-needed support network.
But there is fear that for far too many, getting access to drugs is much easier than getting access to mental health services.
‘Extremely worrying’ spike in young people using drugs
According to youth charity The Mix, there has been a 75% increase since 2021 in young people using substances to escape problems in their lives, with one in five users doing just that.
A similar number of young people use substances to help them cope with a mental health issue or emotional distress.
In addition to that, the charity has found a total of one in three young people (aged 16-25) have used an illegal drug in the past 12 months, which equates to around 2.6m people and a 50% increase on last year.
One in three young people have used an illegal drug in the past 12 months, which equates to around 2.6 million people, The Mix says
Over the last 12 months, 17% of young people have used a class A drug within the past 12 months, equating to 1.3 million young people and a 54% increase on last year.
“The spike we have seen in the number of young people facing challenges with substance use in the past year is extremely worrying, and we believe it’s also preventable,” said The Mix’s deputy chief executive Zoe Bailie.
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Ms Bailie highlights the difficulties many young people face when trying to access mental health services across the country, and says this needs to be more accessible to help those in need.
She also highlights the stigma often attached to drug use, and says this can often mean young people are afraid to ask for help, out of fear of judgement.
Ms Bailie added: “We also need to do more to highlight the support that is available, ensuring that it’s accessible before a young person becomes dependent on drugs as a way to cope with life’s problems.”
Jess Phillips has said “nothing is off the table” when dealing with the grooming gangs scandal – including a new national inquiry if victims want one.
The safeguarding minister told Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast that she would listen to victims on a new panel that was announced by the government this week.
“Nothing is off the table,” she said.
“And if the victims come forward to me in this victims panel and they say, ‘actually, we think there needs to be a national inquiry into this’, I’ll listen to them.”
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Her comments come days after it emerged she had rejected calls from Oldham Council to hold a government inquiry into grooming gangs in the town, and said the council should commission one instead.
That has led to tech billionaire Elon Musk attacking her and Sir Keir Starmer for not holding a national inquiry and accusing the prime minister of being “complicit” in the abuse.
Professor Alexis Jay finished an eight-year national inquiry into child sexual abuse in 2022 and set out recommendations for the government.
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The Conservatives tabled an amendment to the Children’s Safeguarding and Schools Bill on Wednesday to require a statutory inquiry into grooming gangs.
However, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told Sky News the Tories “don’t care about children” as the amendment could prevent the entire bill from going forward.
She said: “The measures that I’m setting out today and the legislation in many ways go further because it puts a requirement on all councils to have teams working to keep children safe.
“And the bandwagon jumpers that have come along in recent days, they don’t care about children, they don’t care about making sure that we stop this and we take action.
“They had years to do it and they didn’t do it.”
The Conservatives also rejected a call from Oldham Council for a government inquiry in 2022.
You can listen to Beth’s full interview with Jess Phillips in a special episode of Electoral Dysfunction released on Thursday.
The 14-year-old who was stabbed to death on a bus in southeast London yesterday has been named as Kelyan Bokassa.
He was stabbed to death on a bus in Woolwich Church Street, close to the Woolwich Ferry, just before 2.30pm on Tuesday.
The teenager died at the scene shortly after medical help arrived.
The Metropolitan Police called the stabbing a “horrific attack,” while London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said the “heart-breaking violence has absolutely no place in our city”.
No arrests have been made so far but officers are appealing for witnesses who were on the 472 bus.
Tributes were left to the teenager, who was a student at St Columba’s Catholic Boys School. Pic: PA
An aspiring rapper, 14-year-old Kelyan was also “briefly” a student at St Columba’s Catholic Boys School in Bexleyheath.
The South East London Catholic Academy Trust said in a statement it was “saddened by the loss of life” and added: “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this difficult time.
“Our schools will provide support to any of the students who may be affected by this senseless violence.”
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Mary Bokassa, the boy’s mother, also told MailOnline that he and others “were taken advantage by gangs” and “were groomed”.
She told the outlet: “He was missing for a year and was living on the street. He finally turned up at my doorstep, he was sick, underweight and tattooed.
“He was exposed to drugs. He probably experienced something because I could sense it. He was not himself. If I questioned him, he wouldn’t tell me anything about his friends.”
Detective Chief Inspector Martin Thorpe, who is leading the investigation, said: “Following Kelyan’s tragic death yesterday, specialist officers are now leading the investigation which is progressing at pace.
“If anyone saw this horrific attack or was in the area then I urge them to come forward and speak to officers.
“We’re particularly interested in any mobile phone footage that captured this incident or any dash cam or doorbell footage from around the surrounding area at the time of this incident.”
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