A TEENAGER who kicked his drugs habit to escape a life of crime has begged youngsters not to fall under the evil spell of addiction.

Shane Dobson became tangled in the drug culture when he left East Lancashire for Manchester as a 15-year-old and took any drug he could get his hands on.

After trying cannabis, he quickly moved on to LSD, amphetamine and ecstasy but he is now so anti-drugs he won't even take paracetamol.

Things got worse when Shane turned to car crime - not to fund his habit, but by his own admission, to "get a better buzz".

Only when eventually caught by police did he realise how drugs were ruling and ruining his life.

Now he will not take so much as a painkiller after driving drugs out of his life completely.

Shane, of Edmund Street, Accrington, said: "I left school when I was 15 to live with my gran in Manchester but it was the worst move of my life.

"I got to know a few of the wrong lads and smoked a bit of cannabis. "Then I tried other drugs like amphetamine and LSD and that was when I got into car crime.

"I could say it was because I was on the drugs and needed something for a better buzz. But one day I got caught and everything came tumbling down on me."

Shane was taken to hospital in Rochdale after suffering a nervous breakdown. But it was then that he decided to change his ways.

He explained: "I was put on Prozac but knew I had to stop taking them by myself. So I came off pills and have stopped taking drugs altogether.

"I realised my mistakes and started to have a battle with myself. I knew what was happening to me and I suppose I was lucky I could give up, because it's all to do with your mind when you are trying to stop."

Now 19, Shane was recently fined a total of £350 by Rochdale magistrates for theft, driving offences and failing to surrender to bail.

But at his hearing, Shane's solicitor told the court he was now so anti-drugs he would not even take paracetamol.

The former Rhyddings High pupil is back in Accrington, works as a bar and cellarman and lives in a rented house with his girlfriend.

He is hoping to secure full-time work at The Regency Bar in Church Street and looking forward to a brighter future.

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