More teenagers in England who need it are receiving help for problems involving drug and alcohol use, but fewer have problems severe enough to require treatment for addiction, new national statistics reported today by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA), show.

The number of teenagers entering treatment for heroin and crack has fallen by a third in four years according to the NTA report ‘Substance misuse among young people – The data for 2008/09’; this echoes the trend already seen in young adults (aged 18-24) in drug treatment.

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