 No matter where you go, you're
 always going to see smackheads.
 Rob off their own fucking nans.
      The stigma runs right
         across society,
 even into the recovery community.
        Another one there.
       If I had carried on,
   I would have found hundreds.
  I got pretty much one of these
          in every room.
 People take the law into their own
   hands. It's just part of life.
   Is it, though? For me, yeah.
 LAUGHTER
 It's Saturday night in Manchester,
        and I'm on my way
      to meet a group of men
   who say they have had enough
  of heroin users in their area.
 And they want to tell me exactly
  what they are doing about it.
    Apparently, their actions
         are so extreme
 that they're breaking the law...
 ..and they are very, very cautious
   not to have their faces shown.
 What's it like, living round here?
             A dive.
 It is - it's full of smackheads,
          there's no jobs,
 there is nothing for people to do.
          Do you think,
     from what you guys see,
  is heroin use in this area on
    the increase or decrease?
      Increase, definitely.
  You can see them doing it in the
 streets when you are walking past.
 They come out and leave needles
           everywhere.
 Once they come up, they're just,
        fucking...just...
        "Eurgh, eurgh..."
   and that's it, they're off.
 Then it becomes your responsibility
      to try and clean them up.
 And did you ever report any of this
 to the council or the authorities,
        to clean them up?
    Yeah, but they don't do...
     All they tell you to do
     is put it in a container
 and take it to your local pharmacy,
    where they can dispose of it.
    The council won't come out
     just to move one needle.
 They'd not come out if you found a
 bunch of needles here on the floor.
  I don't want my kid growing up
        around that shit.
   Councils state they will pick up
 any reported needles within the day,
 but these men say they have grown
 so sick of the ongoing situation,
   they decided to sort it out
           themselves.
 But you guys don't just clean up
       the needles, do you?
   You clean up the users, too.
 Yeah. If we need to use violence,
        we'll use violence.
         Simple as that.
    Kick the fuck out of them.
 Learn them a lesson, and more often
   than not, they won't come back.
 But is that not an extremely violent
         way to go about it?
 Doesn't matter, it is the only way
      you can get rid of them.
   None of them will ever ring
       the police, though.
      They're drug dealers,
        they take drugs.
    They defend their violence
          by telling me
 it's all to protect their turf.
        So, in some ways,
 do you guys just see yourselves
 as extreme neighbourhood watch?
 Yeah, definitely. Pretty much, yes.
     We live on the streets,
 so we want it to be a nice place
    to live for our children.
    And do you guys use drugs
           yourselves?
          I smoke weed.
 You smoke weed. What about you guys?
   I take coke. You take coke?
          I do as well.
      Do you see it as being
       a bit hypocritical?
         No, not really.
    Because heroin and cocaine
        are completely and
      utter different drugs.
 They will have to go and rob people
 and businesses to feed their habit,
 we can afford to pay to buy a little
 gram here and there at the weekend.
 I'm introduced to other members
        of their group...
     ..and it becomes obvious
        that some of them
     aren't just using drugs
         recreationally.
 These two are quick to boast about
    their business dealing coke.
   How much money do you reckon
       you can make a day?
  Pfft... Varies, from £100-£300,
 to anything - depends on the day.
       It is not addictive,
       it's just fucking...
 It's the money that's addictive.
   Yeah, yeah, it's the dough.
 Do you want to get away from it?
  Yes, of course I do. I've got
       a family and that -
         but at the minute,
 it's money and it's where I am at.
       It's living the life
        that I am living.
  But not forever, not forever.
  They also share the same views
         on heroin users
 and reveal some shocking violent
  behaviour against the addicts.
  We've had run-ins where we had
          needles found,
 so we've fucking been and seen them,
       give them a good hiding,
     stabbed them a few times
     with their own needles,
    the dirty little bastards.
      Why did you stab them
       with their needles?
  Because they were throwing it
   over people's back gardens,
  that have got kids that play
 in the back gardens and things.
   It is not acceptable, is it?
     But yet, you sell sniff.
 Yeah, I know, but you don't get
      people throwing sniff
    over someone's back garden,
 because they are not that stupid,
        it costs too much.
 They'd rather sniff it themself.
     Do you know what I mean?
      Start throwing sniff
   over someone's back garden,
  I'll shake their fucking hand.
  But you haven't got a problem
           with sniff?
         No, have I fuck.
  Have you ever seen sniff users
       become crack users?
       Yeah, once or twice.
      And then what happens
  when they become crack users?
    Crackheads, aren't they?!
 HE LAUGHS
          Fuckin' hell.
          In their world,
 there is a definite drug hierarchy
 that puts coke users at the top and
  heroin users right at the bottom.
  It also allows them to justify
      their illegal actions.
  This morning, I'm going to go
  and meet with one of the lads
   and take him up on his offer of
 looking at some of the problem areas
 where we might find some needles.
        I mean, generally,
    what's this land used for?
     Now it's just wasteland
     until they develop it.
   A lot of people use it for
  walking their dogs and stuff.
    But again, at night-time,
   you have got the smackheads.
   So what have you got there?
     Wow. That is a new one,
      that, that's recent.
      Just bending that over
       so my dog doesn't...
        or any other dogs
     don't get stabbed by it.
      Do kids play up here?
 Yeah, quite a few kids play up here.
  They mainly play on the hill,
   because we try and stop them
        coming round here.
 He tells me that heroin users often
       camp out in this field,
  and when the group find them,
 they want them out immediately.
  We come over to them and say,
       "Get off the field,
  you've got ten minutes to go,
     "or we're coming back."
  We come back ten minutes later
    and they were still here,
    so we just battered them
   and sent them on their way.
   Do you think it's necessary,
     that level of violence?
         If you had kids,
 would you like them to see someone
  digging smack in front of them?
 This is a place we set on fire,
    again, if you look here -
         there's hundreds
       of them around here.
         More here, look,
       needles out on show.
   You burnt them out of here?
 Yeah, got a load of flammable liquid
       and set it all on fire.
   One of me friends filmed it.
  Right, so that is right here.
 Yeah, and then the flame, there,
        we set it on fire.
      'No more smackheads.'
      What did you say then?
  We said, "No more smackheads."
 I just moved a bit of that, then,
      and could have stabbed
         myself on that.
   Another one there. Oh, yeah.
 We have probably collected about 30
 in the time we have had a quick walk
          around the field.
  If I had carried on searching
        through all that,
    I would have had hundreds.
 I don't want to be holding them,
          to be honest.
   What I'll do, I'll put them
        all in this shoe
 and put them in the fire later.
     The quantity of needles
    do point to a vast number
     of addicts in the area,
     and I wonder if he has ever
 thought about or tried to understand
   the situation of the people
     who leave them behind.
     If someone is suffering
       with an addiction,
 what are your thoughts on that?
  Do you feel empathy for them?
      Do you feel sympathy?
 I don't feel sorry for smackheads,
     cos it's their own choice,
 it is their own choice in life.
 They choose to inject themselves
            with this.
    But do you think, perhaps,
           life can...
      ..bring it upon you,
     you lose opportunities,
 anyone can become a heroin addict?
  No matter how hard life gets,
   I would never turn to this.
 Do you know anyone who has become
         a heroin addict?
               No.
       And if any of my mates
 started on heroin and smacking up,
 then they would just have the bloody
       shit kicked out of them.
    Cos it's disgusting, it is
 disgusting, I don't associate...
 I don't associate with smackheads
       and stuff like that.
  Even if your own father became
         a heroin addict?
 If my dad became a heroin addict,
         I would stab him.
     No two ways about that.
 It is a zero tolerance approach.
 One which he adopts at home as well.
 He seems to have reason to worry
     about violent break-ins
    and he shows me an arsenal of
 weapons he keeps to defend himself.
 I've got pretty much one of these
          in every room.
    That's quite a collection.
   I've got some more in there.
   You've got some more? Yeah.
 You've got a knuckle-duster thing
             there...
 I will stash them in the corner of
        the room like that,
 downstairs, upstairs, whatever.
 If I hear someone coming through
  my front door, just run down,
  grab that and go down with it.
 So people having weapons in their
 house has become the norm for you?
       I've always seen it.
 I never seen it when I was at home,
 but at mates' houses with shotguns
    and all that sort of stuff,
 hid in corners and people taking the
 law into their own hands, you know.
 I think it's a very lack of faith
 in the police, just part of life.
   Is it, though? For me, yeah.
   Wow. I'll show you that one.
 However they justify it though,
   he's part of a violent group
     who target heroin users.
 People already criminalised and
 stigmatised by their addiction.
 There are just under 300,000 heroin
 and crack cocaine users in England
 and those aged 40 and above now make
  up the largest number of addicts.
        At a soup kitchen,
    I meet 47-year-old Darren.
 He tells me he had been using heroin
             for 24 years
   and was recently assaulted.
  I understand you got attacked?
     Yeah. And what happened?
 What's happened, when I'd been
 stood on the front of this pub,
 he'd seen somebody come out to me
 and then he's come running over.
 Oh, my goodness, so right in your
           lungs, there.
   Yeah, it's punctured me lung
          and me liver,
 I was in hospital for five days.
     He knows that I probably
         won't report it.
   Why, though? Because it's...
         I'm using drugs.
        I don't want to...
     Do you know what I mean?
    ..be blowing it up because
      he tried to attack me.
  Tell me a bit about the stigma
         over the years.
    It weren't so much then,
    because it was all shush.
 But as it has progressed, it's more
     and more on the scene now,
   the last ten, 12, 15 years.
         It is horrible,
     walking down the street
  and you get young kids saying,
      "Smackhead," you know.
   It makes you feel like that,
      you know what I mean?
    I just put my hood up and
        carry on walking.
         Not all people,
    or what they call junkies,
     go out and drop needles
         in the street.
   People have got consciences,
     do you know what I mean?
   People will do things right.
 Once you've seen one person do it,
   they label everybody the same.
 The majority of people who inject
 heroin are good people, you know.
 The point is, you get dragged down
    because you're taking drugs
 and you have to do stupid things
           to get them.
  They don't really have a clue
   what's going on in my life.
        It's a hard life.
     Pete, an ex-heroin user,
   knows too well the hardships
       of being an addict,
 and recently set up a support group
    to help people reintegrate
          into society.
    He introduces me to Steve,
  who is currently in treatment
         for addiction.
   Why do you think society has
    this view of heroin users?
 I'll tell you why, cos you take
       a few case studies,
  a few of the darkest examples,
         and hold that up
      as a means to frighten
       people away from it.
     Drug addicts stigmatise
       other drug addicts,
    so I've come into contact
      with people who say,
    "I am addicted to cocaine,
 but I'm not addicted to heroin."
          So it's like,
     even within addictions,
 heroin is right at the bottom, so...
        ..the stigma runs
      right across society,
 even into the recovery community.
  It is because society sees...
 associates heroin with needles.
 I mean, how tough is it, if you are
     in the state of addiction,
       are you responsible
     to pick up your needles?
 Or is there a bigger issue here?
         A bigger issue.
    That's a minority, again.
        Most of the places
       that you will see...
   And it's not right, to have
  used needles near kids' parks
      and blah, blah, blah.
 But the majority of that will be,
    and I'm not stigmatising...
 homeless people, but they haven't
    got a roof over their heads
   to go and use their opiates.
  Do you think that heroin users
          have reported
 crimes that have happened to them?
   Heroin users, just by using
  the drug, it's a criminal act.
  Society doesn't listen to them
             anyway,
  so why would a police officer?
       In all my time being
        with an addiction,
     I've never seen anybody
        that has been...
 had a crime committed against them
         go and report it.
 So it's really no surprise that
 the anonymous group I met earlier
        remain unpunished.
    So the lads I've met with
       are pretty extreme,
   it's obvious they have very
     extreme views, I think,
     a lot more than society,
   but I do think society holds
 a grudge against the heroin user.
    Now, the lads clearly have
           such issues,
  I think it's gone beyond that.
      They've created their own
 nightmares of what a heroin user is.
 Protecting their community, I think,
            is an excuse.
 I return to a party back at one of
         the group's house.
          What's that?
  I had a few beers, got angry.
    So I just threw my iPhone
         into the wall.
 You kept it in there? Yeah, it looks
       quite nice as a feature.
 HE LAUGHS
   Outside, two of them prepare
         to light a fire.
     We'll get the shoe with
 the needles that we got earlier,
 just fill that full of the solvent.
 That will keep that set on fire,
 which will melt all the needles.
 So, is the fire burning the needles
 almost like a ritual for you guys?
     You could put it like that.
 Every other week, we'll have a fire,
 collect them all up and burn them
 all, then just have a few beers.
  So, how long will you carry on
           doing this?
   Until I've a good life - a nice,
 clean area with no smackheads about.
     And I'll keep doing that
           till I die.
   So, as odd as it may sound,
       I'm really pleased
    that I've met those guys,
     because they've actually
          opened my eyes
   to wider society's prejudice
     against the heroin user.
 But I do think, although they are
         an extreme case,
  it does beg the question that,
 if these crimes aren't going to be
             reported,
 how many other groups like this
    exist across the country?
