Hundreds of recovering drug addicts in Glasgow are helping others battling substance abuse.

The council say new 'recovery communities' set up across the city where addicts mentor those still caught in the stranglehold of addiction are transforming the city's rehabilitation services.

In Glasgow there are now up to 1500 people formerly affected by substance misuse supporting people through the long process of rehabilitation.

Ronnie Hart, 45, is a lead volunteer in the Possil area and often the first point of contact for addicts coming through the doors of a crisis service.

He lost his family and "every skill he had" after 35 years of problem drug use, which started with solvents at 11 and ended in heroin.

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He said: "I knew I was going to die if I kept using drugs and I didn't want to.

"I can look someone in the eye and say 'I know how you feel.

"I know everything they have gone through because I've done it all myself.

"I'd used all the excuses myself."

Ronnie says a traumatic early life and peer pressure led to him experimenting with drugs as a boy.

He said: "I got involved in substances at a young age, probably solvents at 11 or 12 and went from there through a lot of different drugs.

"I didn't need to think about things.

"What kind of drug was I using? What wasn't I using. All the different trends through all the different periods.

"I had periods of working but found that even in my employment I couldn't stop taking drugs.

"It ate into every area of my life and overtook it.

"I lost every skill I had. I was a show repairer to trade. My addiction got so bad, I couldn't hold down a job.

"I lost all my family. There were still there but I had burnt all my bridges with them.

"I found myself at 44 and just felt I couldn't go on. My one involvement with services in Paisley had come to the end of the road."

Ronnie was offered a residential place in the north west of Glasgow and spent 12 weeks there, before going into supported accommodation for nine months.

He is now slowly rebuilding his life and his family relationships and has started a qualification in health and social care.

He said: "There's light at the end of the tunnel and I'm living proof. I like to be that example."

Jackie Smith, a Team leader, said: "One of the biggest challenges we have got is that people don't believe it's possible to recover from drug and alcohol addiction.

"So if they can see people who have. It's a very powerful tool."

Councillor Archie Graham, Depute Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “Formal treatment programmes will always be part of the mix but the emergence of recovery communities has helped us to transform our addiction services.

"It is remarkable how those affected by addiction have responded to possibilities offered by these communities. The recovery communities are helping to rebuild lives across the city."