Pubdate: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 Source: Times, The ( UK ) Copyright: 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd Contact: letters@the-times.co.uk Address: PO Box 496, London E1 9XN, United Kingdom Fax: +44-( 0 )171-782 5046 Website: http://www.the-times.co.uk/ Author: SHIRLEY ENGLISH

BOY, 3, ILL AFTER 'EATING HEROIN'

A young boy was last night seriously ill in hospital after apparently swallowing a substance that police believe could have been heroin.

Andrew Nicholson, 3, from Dalmarnock, Glasgow, was said to be in a critical condition after being taken to the city's Yorkhill Hospital.

He was found by an ambulance crew after his mother, Isabel, 21, ran into a community hall from her 16th-floor council flat screaming for help.

She and her boyfriend were believed to be keeping a bedside vigil as police waited to interview them on where the controlled substances came from.

Sgt Neil Punipoce, of Strathclyde Police, said: "I can confirm that a three-year-old boy has been taken to the hospital after allegedly swallowing what is thought to be a controlled substance."

Last year, a seven-year-old boy from Stirling who took heroin to school was taken into care by council social workers.

That boy, whose mother had vowed three months earlier to give up heroin, had handed a bag of the class A drug to a teacher and said: "Please take this because it is killing my mummy."

The boy and his two-year-old brother were collected from school by council officials after police who raided their home discovered a bag of heroin and a quantity of needles.  The latest incident comes amid growing concern about increased drug taking in Scotland.

In Glasgow alone, experts estimate, there are 12,000 intraveneous drug users.