After years of drug and alcohol abuse, 33-year-old Bash Khan now helps rehabilitate others within Lancashire-based Inspire. He says the Asian community still has a long way to go in helping addicts within their community.

“There is a very low percentage of Asians that come in to us.

“As a culture, Asian people live in denial. You can’t solve a problem without acknowledging it first.

“I’d rather be called a recovery advocate, not a champion", said Bash who works for INSPIRE.

INSPIRE is run by CRI (Crime Reduction Initiatives).

The organisation is the main treatment provider for substance abuse, including alcohol, heroine and cannabis.

They provide people with medical intervention, detox programmes and residential rehab.

“We give people all the options. Everyone’s recovery is different.

“Sometimes people want to stop taking drugs but want to carry on drinking."

He said denials were helping to push problems underground.

“It’s not just with drugs or alcohol.

“Teenagers are experimenting, having sexual relationships and the Asian community has one of the highest rates of abortion.

“We are brought up with a notion that sex outside of marriage, drinking, drug taking is forbidden because it is against the religion. Scaremongering with religious rhetoric only aggravates the problem.

“How can people ask for help when they know what they have done is wrong and they are so ashamed?”

He says people need to start being honest about these problems rather than hiding them.

“My main role with INSPIRE is to engage with the South Asian community in East Lancashire. We have opened a Health and Wellbeing Recovery cafe in Briefield and named it ‘Ehsaas’ which in Urdu means empathy. We want to promote the message in the Asian community that we are here to help and support them, not to judge or condemn or shame them.”

Ahead of the first Commons debate on drugs legislation in a generation, a new Home Office study has stated that locking up addicts does not curb addiction.

The comprehensive report suggests that reform is the most effective way of tackling drug addiction.

Bash continued: “With INSPIRE, there is a Drug Emotion Attachment Programme (DEAP) where qualified counsellors delve into people’s history, their emotional attachments, their upbringing and childhood trauma.

“Nothing shocks us. We find that everyone wants to keep their story a secret. They all think what they have done is so shameful.”

His own story began when he started using drugs at the age of 15.

“From weed it progressed to drinking alcohol.

“Yet simultaneously I was playing the role of the dutiful Asian son who had to get good grades at school.

“The problem got worse when I was at uni.

“I took advantage of my freedom. At home my parents were so strict. The stricter my dad was, the more I rebelled.

“I started taking heroin, crack cocaine and benzos, really anything I could get hold of.

“However, like many Asian parents, they don’t know how to handle rebellion.

“My dad dealt with it with the traditional route.

“He sent me to Pakistan to rid me of my habit.

“But I ended up in a prison in Pakistan.

“When I came out of prison, the problem got worse. I was able to find pure heroin in Pakistan which was so much cheaper than the stuff in the UK.

“I ended up being locked up in a clinic.

“Being in the clinic was futile. I might as well have been in prison.

“But for the clinic I was like a gold ticket.

“My dad was paying £700 a month to them for my admittance. No wonder they didn’t want to release me after six months.

“I hated that trip to Pakistan. I was bitter and resentful for about three years following the trip.”

With hindsight he now sees things from a different perspective. That trip was the seed to his recovery.

“The best advice the clinic gave me was to encourage me to go to the Twelve Steps Fellowship Meeting upon returning to the UK.”

Bash’s perseverance to start a new life saw him in residential rehabilitation, then living in a hostel and attending group meetings, but with the support of his family.

“It is crucial to remember that substance abuse affects the entire family, not just the individual.

“My family’s stoic support got me here today.

“My family went to a recovery cinema with me where they showed a film about a recovering drug addict. We were the only Asian family there.

“Recently there was an open day for INSPIRE for the Asian community. My family were there helping out. They are completely involved in my recovery.

“It will take time to change the Asian mind set.

“As an organisation, INSPIRE understands that. If people in the Asian community are not willing to come to the service, the service goes to them.

“At one stage I couldn’t look people in the eye, I was that ashamed of my actions.

“I got the right help. Services like INSPIRE put me through a community detox and admitted me into residential rehabilitation. Since then I have totally abstained from all mood altering substances, and that was over five years ago.”

He says he is not ashamed of who he was.

"My past doesn’t define who I am today. I have had an opportunity to know who I really am, able to find my own identity and values. I now have a sense of belonging and acceptance which I never had before, which I sought through drugs before.

“I now have something to contribute to my community, I give hope to other Asians who are suffering in silence”.

“I don’t want to portray a false image to the world whilst hiding a dirty secret.

“I was able to regain my dignity which meant accepting my past.”