Information
This section provides information for service users and people who are seeking help for others who are facing difficulties with their drug and alcohol use.
Getting help locally
Salford Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) are responsible for reducing the harm caused by drug and alcohol use in Salford.
You can apply for this service if you are in need of help and support because of your dependency on drugs or alcohol, and you want to do something about it.
Treatment is given to those who most need it first. In addition, specialist social workers work with people vulnerable to drugs and alcohol misuse, like people who are homeless.
Drugs
A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that alters normal bodily function. Recreational drugs use is the use of psychoactive substances to have fun, for the experience, or to enhance an already positive experience.
Laws prohibit the use of many different recreational drugs and medicinal drugs that have the potential for recreational use are heavily regulated. Many other recreational drugs on the other hand are legal, widely culturally accepted, and at the most have an age restriction on using and/or purchasing them. These include alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine products.
Drugs are not all the same, different drugs have different dangers associated with them.
Some drugs (such as alcohol, heroin and tranquillisers) have a depressant, or sedative, effect which slows down the way the body and brain function. They can have a numbing effect that produces drowsiness if a lot is taken.
Other drugs (such as amphetamine, cocaine, crack and ecstasy) have a stimulant effect giving a rush of energy and making people more alert.
A third group of drugs (such as LSD and magic mushrooms and to a lesser extent cannabis and ecstasy) have a hallucinogenic effect. This means they tend to alter the way the user feels, sees, hears, tastes or smells.
Drug use by young people
Many young people will try alcohol and drugs. Most do not go on to develop drug or alcohol problems. Those who do often have environmental influences that renders them vulnerable to drug problems in later life.
Salford Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) commissioned research with adult drug users indicates that most problematic drug users do not begin using heroin, cocaine powder, or crack until their late teens or early twenties.
Alcohol
Alcohol is a drug which is consumed by the majority of the population in England. Whilst many do so with few negative consequences, for an increasing number of people alcohol consumption results in poor health, social and family problems, and crime and anti-social behaviour.
Alcohol misuse is a complex issue. Alcohol use, within the government’s recommended limits, is unlikely to cause harm. However when these limits are exceeded significant problems can be caused, both to the drinker themselves and to those around them. In Salford approximately 60,000 adults drink in excess of the government’s daily recommended limits. In some cases this results in hospital admissions, family problems, committing or being a victim of crime, or even death.
Useful links
- Action on addiction
- Addaction
- adfam
- Al-Anon Family Groups
- Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
- b-eat
- Brook
- DrugScope
- Exchange supplies
- Families Anonymous
- Narcotics Anonymous (NA)
- National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA)
This page was last updated on 16 March 2011
