A WREXHAM woman has spoken candidly about the impact drugs had on her life after figures were released showing the rise of drug-related crimes committed by juveniles.

Ministry of Justice figures show that 4,000 drug offences were committed by children during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, despite national lockdowns and other measures contributing to a significant fall in overall crime rates.

It meant over 10 per cent of all childhood offending in England and Wales was connected to drugs in 2020-21 – the highest proportion on record, despite an overall 58 per cent drop in youth-related crime since 2013-14.

But critics of drug prohibition warn giving a youngster a criminal record can negatively impact their future.

Amongst them is Zoe Davies, a 43-year-old mum from Wrexham, who has said more needs to be done to protect youngsters against falling into the world of drugs - as she did.

Zoe started taking drugs as a 13-year-old.

"What we are seeing here is the ripple effect of funding cuts and generational trauma being passed down through families," she said.

"The housing crisis we have and the benefit cuts - children getting into criminality to try and provide for their families.

"It is the generational curse of the many failing systems we have in place today. We have a system that is designed to punish children for their crimes, without understanding what is really behind it.

"They fall into the world of criminality when they are just trying to make a living the only way they know how."

Zoe said we should instead be "healing" these children and educating them on how to make better choices in life.

She said her life was turned upside by down by drugs and criminal convictions.

"I grew up in the criminal justice system," she said.

"I first appeared in court at 14 years of age for assault. I was taking drugs to numb my feeling from the age of 13 onwards. It progressed from cannabis to heroin and crack cocaine."

Zoe ended up going to jail after being convicted of being found in possession with intent to supply drugs.

"My criminal history stopped me from getting jobs, so I just accepted that was how it was," she said.

"I will always just be a junkie with a criminal history and no employer will want to take me on. I began engaging in more criminal activity as a way to survive and fund my habit."

Zoe's life turned when she was released from prison and began engaging with the CAIS charity - a North Wales-based drug and alcohol rehabilitation service.

"I was in rent arrears and didn't have my children in my care," she said.

"There was no help with housing to be able to better my situation. But CAIS supported me to learn how to pay bills, live independently, gave me volunteering opportunities.

Cais paid for Zoe's education as a way of saying thank you for all her hours of volunteering, and later employed her.

"But not just that, they gave me my dignity back," Zoe said.

"They gave me a sense of purpose and enabled me to become a productive member of society - they gave me my life and my smile back."

Zoe believes more money should be invested in these types of services, and that young people should be referred to them instead of being handed often damaging criminal convictions.

"Let’s educate them instead of punishing them," she said.

"Put the money into health instead of the criminal justice system. Our jails are overspilling with addicts, so it is obvious it doesn’t work."

She added: "A lot of people who work there are ex-addicts who love being that role model for addicts wanting to change their life and give their families their life back.

"That’s how we cure generational trauma, by helping one addict and one family at a time."

Steve Rolles, senior policy analyst at the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, said the figures were a "depressing reflection on the failure of UK drug policy" and added that nobody should be criminalised for personal drug use.

He said a prohibitionist approach had gifted the control of drug markets to organised criminals, adding: "Rather than protecting children, the war on drugs has put them in harm's way, through criminalisation, more potent and risky drugs and through the exploitation of vulnerable youth within illegal drug supply networks and county lines."

A Government spokesperson said it was combining tough enforcement with early intervention programmes and investing £200m in its Youth Endowment Fund to divert children from crime.

It is establishing an evidence base to better understand how to prevent children from taking drugs but has no plans to decriminalise drug possession, saying it would not eliminate the crime or address the harms associated with drug dependence.

Dr Laura Garius of Release, the national centre for drugs expertise, called prohibition a gateway into further drug use and offending, adding: "There is no relationship between the toughness of a country's drug sanctions and the levels of drug use.

"Criminalising children for drug offences hinders their life chances and disrupts their education and employment outcomes.

A 2018 NHS report found that a quarter of 11 to 15-year-olds surveyed in England that year said they had taken drugs, including 38 per cent of 15-year-olds.

And separate figures show concerns over a child's misuse of drugs was a factor in 27,000 assessments of children in need across England in 2020-21.

Commander Catherine Roper, lead for children and young people at the National Police Chiefs Council, welcomed the national reduction in recorded child crime over recent years.

She said there would always be situations in which arrest is the best option but said forces give "careful consideration" to all options and often take a diversionary or restorative approach with the aim of preventing further offending.