19 February 2008:
A prime-time BBC One programme will lift the lid on the links between begging and hard drugs in March.
Inside Out is a BBC London social affairs programme which goes out every Friday evening at 7.30pm. It contains three segments looking at issues affecting people in the capital.
A makeshift crack cocaine pipe
One of these films on 21 March will follow the lives of people who beg and look at the links with class A drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine.
Staff from Thames Reach are filmed as they battle to help some of society’s most vulnerable men and women off the streets.
The film shows individuals caught up in a cycle of begging for money, ‘scoring’ off their dealer and then disappearing to impromptu ‘shooting galleries’ on patches of East London wasteland to take the drugs.
Chris is seen being helped into accommodation, but that is far from the end of his problems as he battles with an addiction to heroin, prescription drugs and super strength lager.
Jerry, who is featured in the programme, used to beg and sleep rough in an East End subway
Jerry has also been helped off the streets but is a long way away from conquering his own personal demons in relation to his drug addiction.
He talks frankly about the links between begging and heroin in London and the truth behind his plight.
Thames Reach has recently been invited to put up posters in East London tube stations to educate the public on this issue, as part of its campaign against giving money to people who beg.
According to Thames Reach Chief Executive Jeremy Swain: “If you give money to people begging in the capital it will probably be spent on drugs. Don’t line the pockets of drug dealers, support a local charity instead.”
