Friend's drug gift left girl near death

A YOUNG woman who supplied an ecstasy pill that almost killed her best
friend was jailed for nine months yesterday.

Joanna Maplethorpe, 22, gave the tablet to her friend Alexandra Thomas as a
present on her 21st birthday. But the celebrations turned into a fight for
life when Miss Thomas suffered an extreme reaction. Combined with the
effects of alcohol and amphetamine, the ecstasy caused her to collapse in a
fit at a nightclub in Redhill, Surrey.

She was taken to hospital screaming and thrashing around and, at one stage,
it required six staff to control her. She has since made a full recovery.

Guildford Crown Court was told that both Maplethorpe, of Caterham, Surrey,
and Miss Thomas had taken ecstasy and amphetamine before on several
occasions but had never suffered any adverse effects.

Judge Geoffrey Mercer said that Maplethorpe's crime was at the "lower end
of the scale" but added that supplying ecstasy had to be punished severely.
"This is by no means the first time that such results have following the
consumption of ecstasy. It is a very dangerous drug."

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997