EMPLOYED by a national charity, he is on the frontline of the war on drugs, dealing with dozens of addicts every day.

The addiction worker, who asked not to be named, has also won his own battle against drugs, having quit heroin more than a decade ago.

He said: "In recent years heroin has been maybe 2% or 3% pure for a tenner bag, on street level.

"Obviously, if you start buying it higher up the chain, so to speak, like every other commodity, it becomes cheaper.

"But on the street, it's still £10 for something that has little of the active drug in it."

The purity of cocaine and ecstasy has also diminished but the price has come down in line with that.

The drugs worker said: "Ten years ago it was £50 a gram. You're probably talking about £30 now but in terms of the purity levels most of the cocaine people are buying won't be the cocaine hydrochloride.

"It will be strong amphetamine cut with local anaesthetics like benzocaine and lidocaine.

"These numb the gums so that if someone wants to do a dip test, it seems like good stuff. For ecstasy, for a long time there was no MDMA in them. So, you are getting all these Green Rolex and Mortal Kombat, which are ecstasy-type drugs which usually contain two different drugs, similar in makeup - usually PMA and PMMA.

"These are two volatile substances, far more dangerous and stronger than MDMA. The danger with it is a prolonged onset. Your old ecstasy, the person would take it and feel it after 15 minutes.

"These new pills sometimes have a three-hour delay so people start doubling or trebling because they thinking they are getting nothing. That's why you are seeing all these deaths."

Some drugs widely used a decade ago have all but disappeared from the streets of Glasgow, the addiction worker revealed.

He said: "Acid is something you've not heard of for quite some time.

"The last person I talked to about it, or even mentioned it to me, was years ago.

"They've also done away with jellies and come out with the tablet form.

"They removed a part of the active ingredient so it wouldn't be worthwhile to crush it down and inject it.

"The quality wouldn't be worth the hassle. You seldom hear of it now."

Speed, the street name for the Class B drug amphet-amine sulphate, is also less common.

The drugs worker said: "I don't think they even do grams now. It's about £20 for a quarter of an ounce.

"They make money by cutting it with a bulking agent. An ounce will usually get turned into three ounces."

Cannabis remains the most widely-used illegal drug, although the way it is sold has changed in recent years.

He said: "You'll seldom hear people talking about cannabis resin, where it would be rocky or black. It's mostly grass now."

Some drugs remain uncommon, particularly in Glasgow.

The addiction worker said: "Crystal meth isn't the type of drug we are familiar with.

"Scotland has always had a culture of using the depressed type of drugs. People don't want to be up for 10 days.

"You'll hear about crack in some circles but they are further north, in Aberdeen.

"There's a lot more money in that neck of the woods.

"There is a status attached to drugs. Crack is above most other things. It overtook cocaine when the price went down. You need a lot of money to have a crack habit.

"If you're cutting about the town getting a pound here and pound there you don't want to be spending £20 on a couple of tiny rocks.

"People who smoke crack will maybe do a tenner rock in a pipe to get that dunt.

"It's like buying a bottle of the best whisky and just having capfuls."

peter.swindon@eveningtimes.co.uk