Over-40s are the largest group receiving publicly-funded drug treatment in England, new figures have revealed.
The number of clients in treatment aged 40 or over has more than doubled from 32,406 to 65,339 between 2005/06 and 2012/13, Public Health England said.
Middle-aged drug users are particularly hard to help into lasting recovery and many are older heroin users who have "failing health and entrenched addiction problems", the authority warned.
The rise in over-40s clients compares to a fall in drug users in treatment aged 18 to 24-years-old o ver the eight-year period - down from 3 2,948 to 19,547.
This means that in 2012/13 10% of the adult treatment population were aged 18-24 and 34% were aged 40 or over, compared to 19% and 18% in 2005-06 respectively.
Public Health England director of alcohol and drugs Rosanna O'Connor said: "Drug misuse is by its nature a highly challenging issue to address and the indications are that the going is getting even tougher for services in meeting the needs of an evolving and increasingly complex treatment population.
Source: Belfast Telegraph, 06/11/13
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