THE REAL PICTURE

A Mother Releases A Photo Of Her Dead Daughter. Will It Stop Others Taking
Ecstasy? Hope Humphreys Fears Not

Another beautiful, bright girl is dead. Like Leah Betts, there is a picture
in the newspaper of a lovely smiling girl and beside it one of a swollen
body covered in tubes, unrecognisable. It is a tragic waste of life.

In grief, people often choose to be very private. The last thing they want
is publicity. So why would any parent allow such a terrible picture of
their beloved child to be seen by everyone?

Lorna Spinks died after taking two ecstasy tablets and her devastated
parents have made the brave decision to publish these shocking pictures in
the hope that they will be a warning to others not to take drugs.

It is a brave decision; but will it do any good? Do such shock tactics
work? There may have been fewer ecstasy-related deaths after the publicity
about Leah Betts, but many believe this is not because fewer people are
using the drug but because they are better informed about safety issues.
Elizabeth Spinks, Lorna's mother, said: "We know drug-taking is going on.
In Switzerland in venues like this, there is a chemist who will test the
pills - it makes more sense. If Lorna had taken her tablets to be tested,
she would still, perhaps, be here." And that is the point, isn't it? All
the education, all the warnings, will never wipe out drug use. Young people
have always done things their parents don't want them to do. Experimenting
with drugs is just one of those things.

I learned about drugs when my student son was sent to prison on a drugs
charge. Like Elizabeth Spinks, I did not even know he used drugs. When we
got the call saying he had been arrested, we were horrified. I suppose we
were victims of the media hysteria about drugs: our first thought was that
he must be an addict.

Now, I find it hard to believe how ignorant we were. I had no idea that for
many young people, experimenting with drugs was so widespread and so
normal. Young people avoid being honest about drugs with their parents
because they know the reaction they will get. We don't want to hear the
truth. We cross our fingers and hope for the best. Afterwards, the more I
found out about what my son and his friends were doing, the more I realised
that it was people like me who were aiding and abetting the worst problems
caused by drug use.

The drug tsar and home secretary come out with all these sound bites and
strategies, but what they will never openly debate is that the Misuse of
Drugs Act has become a blunt and dangerous tool which does untold harm to
both addicts and recreational drug-users. It grants the monopoly of drug
supply to criminals. The use of unregulated and unsafe, illegal drugs has
proliferated. More people are in prison because of drugs, or dying, than
ever before. At the same time, more people are enjoying drugs and coming to
little harm. Prohibition has been overwhelmingly unsuccessful. Drugs must
be brought under reasonable, legal control.

My son was caught taking his turn to get cannabis and ecstasy for his close
circle of adult university friends, and he told the truth. Everyone who
knows anything about recreational drug use knows that everyone who uses
drugs has also got them for friends. My son's punishment, a two-year prison
sentence, was far worse, far more dangerous, than the crime.

Thousands of young people are still being given criminal records for minor
drug offences. This blights their life for ever, stopping them travelling
to certain countries and barring them from many careers. An unlucky few get
sent to prison to be brutalised by inappropriate, inhumane treatment.

My experience could have made me an anti-drugs campaigner - I am
anti-drugs, after all. But we must face up to reality. Maybe this
photograph of Lorna Spinks will stop some young people trying ecstasy and
that will be a positive thing. But official figures estimate that over one
million tablets are taken every week in the UK and this will probably continue.

Every time there is a death, we should ask ourselves if we are really doing
all we can to stop it happening. If there were safe heroin injection rooms
for addicts, if ecstasy tablets were tested in clubs, would that save
lives? Being "tough on drugs" should not mean being so tough on our
children that we inadvertently kill them for being disobedient.