The key role families can play in helping relatives beat addictions was first revealed in research by the Bridge Project.

And with the help of a £161,000 Lottery grant, the drug support service in Manor Row has been able to employ two full-time and one part-time worker.

Yesterday the Telegraph & Argus reported how the Bridge Project was dealing with ever more younger drug users. But heroin users are not the only ones who utilise its services.

Despite the relaxing of laws surrounding cannabis, there are users of this drug who have referred themselves to the service.

"If a person is turning to crime to pay for a cannabis habit then it is a problem," said Debbie Allen, services manager at the project.

The service relies on help from the families of users in treatment which is run in conjunction with the child and adolescent unit and Social Service assertive outreach team.

Ms Allen said: "We found that people who had support of their families were more likely to come for treatment and had more success. So what we do is try to find a non-using mentor who is a part of that family who can come with them and use the facilities here as well. We want to show that they are getting as much support as the drug user."

Ms Allen said most drug users had low self-esteem.

She commented: "There will always be people who use drugs for recreational purposes but if you have a happy person and an unhappy person, it is the unhappy person who will try heroin again because it takes away all feelings. A happy person has nice feelings and they don't want to lose that. An unhappy person has those unhappy feelings taken away by heroin."

Ms Allen said the reasons why youngsters took drugs varied.

"We ask people what happens when they do something wrong and they come out with a list of punishments. You ask them what happens when they do something right and they say nothing," she said.

After an initial assessment the drug user is allowed to drop in at the centre without adhering to appointments.

"Sometimes if you set appointments and the user misses one they don't come again and then they have failed before they have even started."

But she said the service had high levels of engagement and that the aim was to keep youngsters coming and using the service - and staying alive.

"It is not about lecturing them, it is about supporting them.

''It is about taking drug user out of the situation and working with the family as well. Nobody has died while being treated and that is an achievement."

Staff who are trained in nursing or social work assess drug users to pinpoint risk elements in patterns of use.

Users are offered counselling and can join in drug-free activities at Bridge, including internet and computer courses, music-making facilities, or have reflexology, acupuncture and massage. The treatments are also offered to the non-user mentor.

Ms Allen said: "We show drug users that they can have a drug free existence. It is a holistic approach."

However, Dr Michael Ross, clinical director of Bradford drug dependency service, refuted the project's findings about young people's use of heroin and said the drug remained the domain of those in their 20s.

One of his patients, who did not wish to be named, said: "I am 32 now and I have been using heroin since I was 20. I don't know anybody that young who is using heroin.

''A few young ones might try it but it is the same as it has always been, with people between 20 and 30 using it."