Between the ages of 15 and 20 your life changes remarkably. You slowly grow into an adult, take on larger responsibilities, have experiences that shape your character and you learn the way of the world.
Your youth is your time to have fun, the time to rebel against your parents (who by the way are usually always right) and it is also your time to make your mistakes and try to learn from them.
These mistakes however, can sometimes be life altering.
Drugs and alcohol have, more often than not, always played a part in a young person’s life. Whether it’s stealing liquor from your parent’s drinks cabinet or being in the company of someone smoking cannabis, there will be a time in a young teenager’s life where they experience such things.
Parents in Islington are increasingly more worried about their teenagers and Class A substances, such as ecstasy, after the death of Daniel Spargo-Mabbs, who died at the age of 16 after taking the drug MDMA in the form of a pill in late January.
“The thought of my boys going out terrifies me, but I can’t stop them,” said Denise Martin, a single mother of two teenage boys living in Finsbury Park.
“I know they’ve tried different things, they are young and going out seems like the most important thing in their lives at the minute.
I just pray they don’t take it one step too far.”
Mabbs, who has been described as an “intelligent” and “sensible” A-level student, is believed to have taken a form of ecstasy containing PMA, a substance that has similar effects as MDMA but is a lot stronger and incredibly toxic.
Drugs Councillor Peter Laurence says that not only is ecstasy becoming a “mystery drug” it’s also becoming more and more available which he says is down to “different, cheaper chemicals being used and disguised in pill form.”
“The problem is that you never know what you could be taking, a lot of these drugs contain fatal ingredients that can have devastating effects.”
Julie Grayson, 46, from Angel recalls the night she got a 5 am phone call from a friend of her son’s, after he’d collapsed at a rave in Kings Cross.
“A thousand things went through my head at the same time, I was scared for him, and I thought he was dead.”
Mrs Grayson’s 18 year old son, who wishes not to be named, was rushed to hospital and thankfully made a full recovery after taking “a small red pill”, which was later confirmed to be a form of ecstasy, but one that contained the chemical PMA.
“Thank God he was one of the lucky ones,” said Mrs Grayson.
Camden & Islington Drugs & Alcohol services are a community-based service providing help and advice for everyone that needs it. Visit their website www.candi.nhs.uk for more information.
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