“There’s no question about it that the Pakistani communities dominate the heroin market in the north of England. In London, in Tower Hamlets, it is the Bangladeshis who dominate the market. Then you have the Turkish gangs as well.”

Well at least that’s how Professor Kamlesh Patel sees things after concluding a £5 million government study into the drug trade in the UK.

The drug study was aimed at determining the extent of drug use among of ethnic minorities in the UK and was headed by Professor Patel who is the government’s adviser on mental health and ethnicity.

The study was done with the input of over 200 ethnic minority community groups throughout England and also comes to teh finding that a prevalence of young people can also be correlated with an increase in drug use in many communities.

While the study will hopefully be able to aid in the creation of drug prevention programs among minority groups in the UK it is also likely to be the source of a lot of debate over its value.

While community groups may have had a hand in the creation of this drug report, it is yet to be seen how the actual south Asian community itself will react.