User:Pete1774

DrugsLine, North Herts, UK DrugsLine is a telephone counselling service based in Hertfordshire UK. It was conceived by Peter Mulhearn, Mike Collins and Jan Hitchens in 1980. In the late 1970s Pete and Mike worked for the Samaritans in North Herts and became aware that there was no local advice service for people with drug problems. Stevenage Council had a public meeting to discuss the growing problem of drug abuse in the area and there they met Jan Hitchens who was at the time a Probation Officer in the town. Like so many good ideas it was conceived by the three in a pub over a couple of beers after the meeting. The first office to open was over a fast food outlet in Stevenage bus station which was acquired rent free from the Local Authority. The original organisational structure was based on the Samaritans model with volunteers split into two distinct groups; the councillors who dealt with clients on the telephone and the fund raising group. Although the service was set up primarily to deal with illicit drug use a significant proportion of the calls in those early days were from middle aged people addicted to Benzodiazapines and similar drugs prescribed by their GPs.