MOTHER SPEAKS OF SON'S HEROIN TRAGEDY

A MOTHER whose son was one of the earlier victims of the heroin deaths
sweeping the city told yesterday of his agonising death.

Marion lost her son David (24) to bad heroin in March.

``I know myself because the previous night he overdosed on me in the kitchen
and I brought him to the hospital, and they wanted to keep him in, which is
unusual, which they don't really want to do it with addicts, they try to get
them out as quick - but they sussed there was something wrong.

``But he wouldn't stay. He came home and he was up drinking water all night
long, which was unusual and my brother found him the next morning at 11am.
He died at 9pm that night.''

Marion, who lives on the northside of the Liffey, said the area she lived in
had no clinic at the time her son needed it because of residents'
objections. ``We had nowhere to go,'' she said.

Marion also claimed her GP was willing to take her son on as a patient but
was refused authorisation by the Eastern Health Board medical doctor.

She had rang looking for an appointment with the EHB doctor the day before
her son died, and was on her way to the hospital when the appointment was
confirmed by a phone call to her mobile.

David was injecting heroin from the age of 17. ``He had been to Coolmine and
he stayed there for six months and he was doing very well, but you see it's
just not that simple: whatever it is about heroin, of all the drugs, it's
very hard to get them off it.

``I mean, the success rate for someone to come off heroin and stay off it
for the rest of their lives is a very low per cent.

``The treatment centres are there, they're great, they do their best for
them, but it's very hard, whatever it does to the system, they just have to
have it.''

One friend of David's had already died from heroin abuse, dying with David
beside him. ``They get totally dependant on it. An addict's life is the fear
of coming back down to normal reality, I don't think they're able to cope
any more,'' Marion said.

``When I'd see him here and he'd be using, he would never be aggressive or
anything.

``I did everything I could to help him. I did things for the good, I did
things for the bad. I went out and I bought methodone off the street for
him, I gave him money for heroin when he needed it, when he was sick. I did
both ends of the scale, because I had to make a decision: I either accept
what his disease is or I reject him.

``People say throw him out, forget about him - I couldn't, he was the only
one I had. I couldn't and I was there to help him.

``Maybe he was just too weak in himself, I don't know.''