POLICE officers manning telephone lines set up through the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's Drive Out Drugs campaign have been inundated with callers.

The number to report information about drug dealing and abuse has been jammed with callers and police are now asking people to ring a freephone number - 0800 555 111 - to help them cope with calls.

The Citizen-backed campaign was sparked by coroners' comments about the rise in the rate of heroin and methadone-related deaths.

This week Blackburn MP and Home Secretary Jack Straw responded to shocking statistics about drug-related deaths in youngsters, revealed in the British Medical Journal.

The figures show that between 1985 and 1995 drug deaths of 15 to 19-year-olds have increased by eight per cent a year.

Opiates, including heroin, accounted for 21 per cent of deaths - fatalities from such drugs have soared by an average 27 per cent a year. Deaths from mind-altering drugs, such as Ecstasy, had risen by 23 per cent a year.

Mr Straw said: "I welcome the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's campaign which has helped bring to light the drug deaths in Lancashire and underscored the need to look at all the issues involved."

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