Childhood Alcoholics: Drinking aged FOUR and addicted age EIGHT

Jan 13, 2015, 06:15 PM

(Broadcast on BBC Radio Stoke, January 2015)

A BBC Radio Stoke investigation has revealed that children as young as EIGHT are being treated for drug or drink addictions in Stoke-on-Trent.

More than two thousand under-18s have been treated for substance misuse problems in the last five years across Staffordshire -- with the average age of referral at 15.

BBC Radio Stoke's EMMA THOMAS met a 42-year-old recovering alcoholic from Stafford -- who we are calling Darren, although that's not his real name.

He told her his drinking habit began at the age of four...