DRUGS MENACE

``SHE was our treasure, she was loved by us,'' these are the harrowing
words of the parents of the 15-year-old girl found dead of a suspected
heroin overdose in a back-street city B&B.

This futile waste of a young girl's life ending in such a sordid way
must shatter anyvestige of complacency that still exists concerning our
control on the drugs epidemic.

It also raises some stark questions about our social services where a
young girl all too obviously vulnerable and a danger to herself can
disappear within ``the system'' for a full month.

Not surprisingly the tragedy has sparked a rash of calls for a
specialist treatment centre for young people experimenting with these
lethal substances. The young are easy prey for the cynical peddlers of
death who now ply their profitable trade in almost every town and city
in this country.

It is truly shocking to reflect on the fact that even before
contaminated heroin claimed 16 lives earlier this year, there were 86
drug related deaths last year, and 72 the year before that. The whole
area of social services needs to be examined when it comes to
marginalised teenagers. But in truth we have known about such problems
for long enough, so isn't it about time we acted on them?