Over 120 children in Northern Ireland were given specialist treatment to fight their addiction to drugs last year, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal today.

Health Minister Michael McGimpsey said 1,984 people sought treatment services during the 2007/8 12-month period for drugs such as cannabis, heroin, cocaine and codeine and paracetamol. But drug support workers in Belfast and Londonderry have said the problem is much worse than official figures suggest.

According to the government figures, 124 children aged 16 and under sought help for their addiction (6% of the total), while just under a quarter of the people who sought drug rehabilitation were 21 and under.

Perhaps most shockingly, 15 children sought help for addiction to ecstasy, while 31 people aged under 21 asked for help after becoming addicted to cocaine. The majority of young people had treatment for addiction to cannabis, with 99 children (aged 16 and under) receiving help and a further 332 people aged 21 and under given rehabilitation treatment for the illegal drug.

The figures reveal that older people are not immune to drug addictions although the majority of people aged 21 and over who received rehabilitation did so as a result of either cannabis or benzodiazepines – a drug prescribed by doctors and most commonly used for treating conditions such as anxiety, insomnia and agitation.

With regard to illegal drugs, 201 and 158 people aged over 21 got help for cocaine and heroin addictions respectively.

Sadie O’Reilly, who set up the Londonderry-based organisation HURT following the death through heroin overdose of her youngest son Michael, said she wanted to establish a support network for drug addicts. She said her group, which offers rehabilitation services, has helped 510 people over the past 12 months — numbers which are not included in official Government figures.

“There definitely needs to be more help out there, I’m always screaming for more resources to be made available,” she said.

And Dr Robert Beckett, an Evangelical Presbyterian Church minister who works closely with drug support groups in the Tiger’s Bay area of north Belfast, said the Government figures only represent “the tip of the iceberg” regarding drug problems in Northern Ireland.

He said there are about two suicides each week in north and west Belfast, and attributed half of these to drugs and alcohol.

Dr Beckett explained the number of drugs on the streets of Tiger’s Bay were dramatically reduced as a result of a public outcry following the suicide of 16-year-old Dean Clarke who died by hanging days after taking a large number of horse tranquilisers. But he stressed that much more needs to be done to tackle the problem.

He said: “One of the organisations I am involved with, Helping Hands, has nearly 100 people on the books, but we could have a 100 times that if we had more voluntary staff. I don’t think the numbers reflect the gravity of the situation.

“We are now seeing kids starting to drink at eight or nine and that often leads to harder substances. It is a very dangerous situation and very difficult to stop.

“There is a huge need for more resources.”

Health Minister Michael McGimpsey released the figures in response to a question submitted to the Assembly by Tom Elliott, a UUP MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

Barbara Ward, drugs and alcohol co-ordinator at the Public Health Agency, said she was most concerned by the figures relating to children, but stressed that help is available for those who need it.

“It is worrying that of the 124 people aged 16 years or under, 99 have accessed rehabilitation treatment for problematic cannabis use,” she explained.

“These figures highlight the need for the co-ordinated efforts of many agencies, local communities and parents to work together to prevent drug misuse.”