A worried mother fears her son has become "trapped in a cycle of prison and addiction" as he is "failed by the system".
The mum from Belfast, who does not wish to be named, says she believes her son and others like him are being repeatedly forgotten about, highlighting how he was recently bailed from prison pending a court case and told he would receive substance abuse support.
But after six weeks of waiting the support was not forthcoming. Belfast Live spoke with the mum and her son, who is in his early 20s, about his addiction struggles which started when he was a teenager in the care system.
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He was placed into care at the age of 14 due to behavioural issues after being removed from school. While his mum says that he received great support from staff at the children's home where he lived, during that time he became addicted to heroin and soon became a regular intravenous drug user.
While no longer taking heroin, in recent years he has become addicted to injecting cocaine, a practice that has become commonplace among addicts in Belfast and that can prove even more harmful to the user.
Over the past few years he has been in and out of prison for a number of different offences and says this is the only place he has been able to get any sort of reliable addiction treatment. However when he leave prison he usually finds himself returning to substance abuse.
Speaking to Belfast Live, the 21-year-old said: "When I was in my early teens I started to take and sell drugs and over the years I have found that it is the only way for me to calm my head down and stopped the constant noise that I have. While I started out at first just smoking weed, when I was in the children's home I started smoking heroin with a friend and quickly became addicted.
"From then on it was just something that was normal to me and when I turned 18 I was placed in a Belfast hostel where I was surrounded by drugs constantly which only made things worse. Over the past few years I have been constantly in and out of Hydebank and while it is the only place where I am able to come off of the drugs, when I leave I usually find myself back out on the streets in the city centre injecting cocaine.
"This time I thought things would be different and I was assured in court that when I was bailed I would immediately receive help for substance abuse, but after six weeks I have not had any, and not even been able to get my drug substitutes to get me by. I have been stuck in the house desperate to get out again."
The man's mum said the only reason he was bailed from prison was because she had assured the courts that he would be staying with her, however the lack of substance abuse support has made this very difficult.
The mum said: "I basically have to have him locked up in the house with this tag on his leg in order to make sure that he does not fall back into his addictions, but without the support that he needs it is very difficult.
"If he wants to cut the tag off and leave the house I would have no way of stopping him and the longer he goes without the support that he needs the worse that it gets for him.
"The sad thing is, my son is not the only person who is in the position and the reason we have so many people in the city with addiction issues, trapped in a cycle of drug use and prison, is because they are not getting the help they need to recover and get their lives back on track."
Sadly, a few days after Belfast Live spoke with the mother and son, he fled his mum's house and relapsed, with him later being found by police in Belfast City Centre.
His mum added: "If the support my son was promised was put in place this never would have happened."
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