Manchester Clinic For Club Drug Users

13 March 2013, 06:00 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A clinic's now open in Manchester for people who want to get off club drugs like Mephedrone, MDMA and Ketamine.

Run by the Priory, the idea is to help users whose lives may have been affected by taking drugs.

Evidence shows more young people are taking club drugs, but a relatively low number are seeking any kind of help.

Paul Pritchard is a Director at the Priory and says the perception that they are softer substances can mask the reality that they are dangerous.

"The problems still do come because people become dependant on a feeling.

But then you start to miss lots of work because on a Monday morning you don't feel well enough to go in.

You can then lose your living and maybe your relationships; you can see the picture unfolds quite quickly."

Capital's spoken to a 22-year-old woman from Manchester who regularly took MDMA and Mephedrone while at university.

"You're kind of in denial - you don't realise that anything's wrong, you think I'm just doing it at the weekend, it's fine, but its not because it lasts the whole weekend and eventually it can cut into your real life.

"The comedowns would be so bad that I wouldn't want to face the world, I wouldn't go into uni, I wouldn't want to do anything, but then by the time Friday came you were feeling a lot better and you thought, screw this lets go out again."

The graduate, who didn't want her name being made public, eventually sought help from the Priory Clinic in Altrincham and turned her life around.

The new drug addiction service is at the Pall Mall Medical Centre on King Street.