A FORMER Wirral community drugs worker is Cheshire's newly appointed Drugs Development Officer.

Sarah Marshall will support national and local policy development through the County's Drug Action Team and will work with experts from Cumbria and Lancashire on the country's first study of drug misuse in rural areas.

"We are conscious of a growing problem in our villages and rural areas, but we need to know much more if we are to be able to tackle the situation in the most effective way," said Sarah. "No-one is suggesting that the extent of drug abuse in the countryside approaches suburban levels, but the problem does exist and cannot be ignored.

"And I think there has sometimes been an understandable reluctance among parents to believe that the problem could spread to the leafy lanes of Cheshire."

Aged 32, Sarah began her career fighting drug abuse as a researcher with the Drugs and H.I.V. Monitoring Unit on Merseyside.

After her stint in Wirral helping heroin users, she moved to the Home Office Drugs Prevention Initiative, supervising projects in youth clubs, schools and care homes.

This initiative will look at levels and patterns of misuse, devise strategies to combat both and bid for funds to finance them.

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