IT’S finally happened – I’ve been caught by the fuzz.

Cops from Middleton police station rumbled me with a bag of heroin round the back of Warwick Mill on a showery Saturday morning, handcuffed me and threw me in the back of a police van for the short trip to the police station.

I’m told as it’s my first offence they might be lenient, perhaps a caution and I’ll be let out in a few hours.

As I travel third class in the back of the police van it begins to dawn on me what lies ahead – a criminal record, redundancy, and the despair of those who know me.

All for a tiny bag of heroin, which won’t even get me through the day.

Of course, thankfully, none of this is real, I’m no drug user and the ‘heroin’ is a synthetic compound used for training, but the feelings, and the process from arrest to charge are all too real.

As part of National Tackling Drugs Week, I’ve been invited to take part in a mock exercise to go through the same motions anyone caught with drugs would experience.

And it’s not just the traditional stereotype of junkies bent over a dirty needle in a dingy flat that get caught – there’s just as many ‘recreational’ users of hard drugs that come through the doors at Middleton police station.

Increasingly as well, officers at the Oldham Road station are seeing ever more poly-drug users – those who take cocaine and heroin – in an attempt to control their come down.

But they’re keen to point out the fight against drugs goes beyond the work of the police, and as part of National Tackling Drugs Week, which is set to take place between the 19 and 23 May, drug cessation and health officials are hoping to raise awareness of the work performed by all agencies at the sharp end of drug prevention.

And right at the forefront of that fight are the police officers on the beat who regularly stop and search those they suspect of taking and dealing drugs – and they’ve decided I look just the type as I gingerly hang around the old Warwick Mill site to start the exercise.

Lee and Becca – two undercover officers – first ask if I have any drugs on me, and like most people confronted with the prospect of being found out, I lie as convincingly as I can in the hope they take my word for it and leave me be.

Sadly for me, they’re not buying it and I'm searched, easily revealing my stash of heroin and I'm handcuffed.

The more I squirm in these handcuffs the tighter they get, and more worryingly they’re designed to break the wearer’s wrist with a single twist of the officers hand if the detainee becomes aggressive.

As I stand handcuffed, thoroughly insecure in the knowledge my wrist can be broken at a moment’s notice, a police van arrives to transport me to the police station. Luxury was clearly not on the list when these were designed and built. There’s a solid metal seat but nothing at all to grip onto.

When the van does arrive at the police station, it comes to a rest in a large metal cage with a roller door which closes behind as it parks up. There is no way out, and it begins to dawn on me, as someone who has never been in trouble with the law, how terrifying a situation this is, even if it’s only a mock exercise.

After being escorted from the holding cage inside the police station, the first stop is to book in, but this is no hotel, and for someone who has never been on a police record it takes over half an hour to input data and personal details into the system.

I’m told there can be a queue of people waiting outside at times, a prospect that could only heighten the fear and tension detainees would feel.

I’m now put through a whirlwind of tests that all people who come through the back door of the station face, and a few more for what is known as a ‘trigger offence’ for taking class A drugs.

First stop is finger prints and the days of mucky ink are gone, instead a state-of-the-art machine scans your fingers and stores the prints automatically.

Next stop it’s DNA testing, a simple swab in the mouth to get a few cheek cells is painless and quick. This information is stored for all police officers in Manchester. It's impressive how such a quick and simple test can be such a powerful tool in the fight against drugs.

I've already been in the station over an hour, and I haven’t been drug tested yet, but that's all about to change, and yet again there’s a state-of-the-art device to do the job.

Using saliva, the machine can detect if I've been using cocaine, heroin or crack cocaine in the last four days, and it can do it all in under a minute, and despite having never used drugs, it was a nervous wait for the machine to give me the all clear.

As this is an exercise, I'm being put through the motions in record time, in normal circumstances no visit to the station is complete without a stint in the cells as resources are stretched and information is gathered.

So of course I’m treated to a few moments incarcerated in a cell. En-suite it may be, but it’s sparse and beyond basic. The floor is bare painted concrete and the bed is akin to a gym mat. With few distractions, it would be here offenders would have time to mull over their crime while officers gather evidence before being hauled for an interview.

From here, the route of drug users and dealers is less clear. First, offenders like myself caught with a small quantity for personal use may walk out with a caution. Persistent offenders and more serious users are likely to be bailed and sent before the magistrates.

But it’s not all about deterrent. Police know whatever the destination of anyone charged with possession, they're likely to see them again in a few weeks if they don’t offer them the chance to go cold turkey.

Nowdays, anyone caught with Class A drugs, or arrested for a 'trigger offence' is given the chance to get clean with the help of a Drugs Intervention Programme (DIP) and individual mentor.

A DIP meeting is now part of the process of arrest for these offences, with users encouraged to set-up follow up meetings to help them break the habit where they can access counselling and methadone to ease the burden of getting clean.

But drugs cessation workers are keen to point out you don't need to be arrested to access help and support to break a drug habit, and regularly engage in other activities to reach out to drug-addled people.

Rochdale Safer Communities Partnership – an umbrella organisation involving numerous local agencies – has been able to increase the number and flexibility of drugs treatment and rehabilitation services for offenders, created new drugs treatment services in Middleton and targeted youngsters affected by drugs.

Over the next three years it hascommitted to tackling poly-drugs use, focus prevention work on offences that surround drugs use and continue with education, abstinence-based treatment services and will continue to disrupt supplies.

The mock DIP meeting marked the end of the experience of being arrested for possession, and even though it may have only been an exercise, its easy to see how terrifying the process can be, but equally reassuring to know the deterrent is mixed with assistance to help drug users break the habit.