BOY, 13, DIES FROM HEROIN OVERDOSE

Glasgow Woman Devastated By Son's Death

A 13-YEAR-OLD boy has died of a suspected heroin overdose, becoming one of
Scotland's youngest drugs victims.

Tests have shown that Alan Harper died after taking drugs in the home of
his mother's boyfriend in the east of the Glasgow. A pit bull terrier is
said to have mauled his body before his death was discovered.

Strathclyde police confirmed last night that Alan, who was found dead in
the flat in Startpoint Street, Cranhill, on 3 January, had taken drugs
before his death.

He was found dead in a sleeping bag on the floor after apparently dying in
his sleep. Although it is believed he had taken heroin, toxicology tests
have not determined the drugs linked to his death.

The divisional commander, Chief Superintendent Louis Munn, said last night:
"The indications at this stage are that Alan may have been involved in some
form of drugs misuse.

"Therefore, the possibility of a criminal investigation cannot be excluded.
Police inquiries are continuing to ascertain if Alan had been involved in
taking drugs and, if so, how and where he obtained the drugs which led to
his death."

This tragic occurrence serves as a reminder to all young people and their
parents about the danger of dabbling in drugs.

Alan, who lived with his mother Jackie, younger brother and grandmother in
a flat in Bellrock Court, near where he died, was not known to use drugs
and neighbours describ-ed his death as devastating.

It is not known if he swallowed, smoked or injected the drug but residents
living nearby said it may have been the first time he had experimented with
heroin. "He was just a wee boy like a thousand others round here," one
neighbour said. "Kicking a ball about, in and out with his pals. This has
hit everybody hard. His mum is absolutely finished."

Another friend said that Alan's grief-stricken mother was being comforted
by friends and family. "She crawled into the wee boy's bed the day he died
and didn't get out for a week. She must have been able to smell him still,
just a trace of him," she said.

"He had got a new Kickers jacket for Christmas and she has that wrapped
around her all the time."

It is a terrible thing to have happened.

"It's not sunk in yet. His gran said to someone that she thinks he is only
joking and that he'll be coming back through the door, but that's not going
to happen."

It is thought that his mother was not in the flat in Startpoint Street when
Alan, a pupil at St Andrew's Secondary, died. It is understood that only
her boyfriend was present.

His death comes as drugs agencies report heroin dealers targeting younger
users on the city's housing estates as an increasing number of older
addicts join programmes prescribing methadone, a heroin substitute.

David Macauley, the director of the Scotland Against Drugs campaign, said
Alan's death should prompt the kind of public outrage against dealers that
has recently been reserved for paedophiles.

"We cannot stand by and watch everything that Scotland holds dear get swept
away by drugs. The talking has to stop and communities have to rise up
against the dealers," he said. "How many tragic deaths does it take before
we realise that our society is being eaten away from the inside?"

Gaille McCann, a Glasgow city councillor and a near neighbour of Alan, said
his death had stunned local people. "Nothing you could say could express
the sense of loss that Alan's family are suffering at this moment and no
parent could think of that without understanding the real dangers facing
all our child-ren every day," she said.

"There are no easy answers but something has to be done before this kind of
tragedy is simply taken for granted as just another death. This wasn't just
another death, this was a mother's son, a young boy with all his life ahead
of him."