Thousands Seek Help for Drug Abuse

Three thousand people in Devon go through the county's alcohol and drugs services each year.

Eighty-five percent are sucessfully completing the treatment.

Manager Kristian Tomblin says he expects the county to be one of the most successful areas "it might be some may be able to go away after one or two sessions of treatment or support, other people might take a while longer. It's only in the last year that alcohol services have been asked to collect these figures, I wouldn't be surprised to see Devon doing very well."

The news comes shortly as Heart discovers that around 70 people die a year here from alcohol related illness, Kristian says it can be many things, "illnesses like chronic liver disease, alcohol poioning and certain cancers like cancer of the throat or mouth."

"We're seeing Devon stay fairly steady over time whereas the national trend is alcohol related deaths have been increasing. But nationally around 17 men in 100,000 die of an alcohol related and around 8.1 women - thats around double."