DRUG workers are meeting in the region today to formulate ways in which addicts can help in the fight against substance misuse.

Organisers of a four-day conference at Durham University hope new procedures can be found to combat social exclusion of drug users.

It is thought there are nearly as many teenagers who have tried drugs as those who have not.

Research shows that of young people aged 15 to 16-years-old, 48 per cent have experimented with either Ecstasy or cannabis.

Mat Southwell, chairman of the National Drug Users Development Agency, said: "If you look at the world of drug-taking you have traditionally had a professional body of people telling drug users how they should live.

"Government policy seems to be preaching social inclusion, but when it comes to drug users they are practising social exclusion."

He added: "All the research into motivation to stop drug-taking says that for people to be effective in changing they need self-esteem and confidence to sort these problems out.

"We are saying that drug users can become part of the solution and not be seen as the problem. It has a distinct benefit to the drug user starting to feel competent and more in control of their life."

Conference organiser and treasurer of the National Association of Outreach Workers, Mark Harrison, said the illegal nature of illicit substance misuse made it a harder problem to tackle.

"A lot of users who would approach voluntary organisations would not sit around a table with statutory bodies," he said.

"What we need to do is develop services that are sensitive to the needs of the users we are providing for."

The conference is backed by the County Durham Drug Action Team. Coordinator, David Cliff, said: "We have a long way to go before we realise that not to treat and not to offer a range of services, does not benefit users.