Mother of Ecstacy Death Teen Calls For Drugs War Rethink!

[Si Dread]

Mother of drug death schoolgirl forgives teenager who sold daughter ecstasy

Mother of 15-year-old Martha Fernback, who died after taking a fatal dose of ecstasy, warns the war on drugs is not working.

The mother of a middle-class schoolgirl whose daughter died after taking a fatal dose of ecstasy has said she forgives the teenager who gave her child the substance. Anne-Marie Cockburn said that Alex Williams, 17, who supplied the fatal drug to her daughter Martha, 15, 'is still young enough to make amends in his life'.

Williams, who was said to be 'consumed with guilt' following Martha's death, was given a youth rehabilitation order by a judge at Oxford Crown Court. Speaking afterwards, Ms Cockburn warned that the war on drugs in Britain is not working because Martha 'was a middle-class girl in a north Oxford school and look what happened'.

Martha's mother, Anne-Marie Cockburn, who used to run writing therapy workshops to combat stress, anxiety and depression, said she could not remain angry with Williams for the rest of her life. She said she would meet Williams and work with him to try to change people's minds about legalising and regulating some drugs.

After the sentencing, Ms Cockburn, said: "I hope he decides to make a positive change and give something back to the world. He is still young enough to make amends in his life. "If he is willing to work with me then together we could raise awareness.

"I personally feel that the war on drugs in the UK is not working. I think as a nation we need to look at it and be more realistic about it. "Martha was a middle-class girl in a north Oxford school and look what happened.
"That shows what the current drug education and legislation lead to. There has got to be another way, because the current way is not working."

During the hearing, judge Mary Jane Mowat expressed her "incredulity at the folly of youth" who are prepared to take street drugs without knowing the dangers.

"They always know best," said Judge Mowat.

"Maybe this case will go some way towards persuading some children that they don't."

Martha's friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, bought a gram of MDMA from Williams for £40 pounds in Oxford on July 17 last year. After the drugs had been split between them, Williams said: "This is new stuff so I'm not sure what it will be like." Three days later Martha told her friend she was going to take her half of the drugs.

They met up and strolled around in the sun before walking into central Oxford.

David Povall, prosecuting, said that Martha, who had used drugs before, then took out a small bag and swallowed the MDMA, which soon took effect.

"Martha was saying the drugs were amazing, 'it feels like a dream, it's better than the last time that we did it'," Mr Povall told Oxford Crown Court on Monday.

By this point they had met up with other friends and had gone to Hinksey Park in central Oxford.

Her friends noticed Martha was sweating a lot and seemed to be overheating and she said she was going for a swim in the pond to cool down.

"At that point Martha collapsed," said Mr Povall.

"Her legs went from underneath her."

An ambulance was called and there was a desperate attempt to revive Martha in front of shocked sunbathers.

"Despite their best efforts and Martha being transferred to the John Radcliffe Hospital she died very shortly after having arrived at hospital," Mr Povall told the court.

Tests were carried out on the other half of the MDMA the pair had bought and it was found to be 91 per cent pure.

On average MDMA seized in the Thames Valley last year was 58.5 per cent and ranges nationally between one and 88 per cent.

Although there was no suggestion that Williams, who handed himself in, was a major drug dealer or knew the purity of the MDMA, he refused to tell police whether he had sold the potentially lethal substance to anyone else.

Judge Mowat said she had received a victim impact statement from Martha's mother.

"As the mother of an only child myself and an Oxford mother at that, I have to say that every part of me resonates with the despair that she describes," the judge said.

She told Williams, from Botley, Oxford: "There is no escaping the fact that, in part because of your actions, a bright young girl aged 15 lost her life."

Alistair Grainger, defending Williams, described it as a "sad and tragic" event and said nothing would ever bring Martha back.

"There's not a day goes by when he isn't thinking about what has happened and is consumed by the overwhelming guilt which flows from the consequences of his actions," said Mr Grainger, adding that Williams had struggled to sleep since the death.

Judge Mowat agreed with Mr Grainger that Williams would not benefit from prison.

He was given a youth rehabilitation order with a supervision requirement for 18 months and an activity requirement doing work for a charity. The teenager will also wear an electronic tag and be under curfew from 7pm to 7am for 90 days and was ordered to go on drugs programme.

Williams had admitted a single count of supplying a controlled drug.

The judge lifted an order banning the identification of juvenile Williams.

from - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...sy.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Sounds to me as if this girl necked half a gram of MDMA, doesn't it? Ouch!

 

[.:Holy::Toast:.]

A half gram of extremely pure MDMA? That's insanity
I'm glad to see her despair isn't clouding her judgement in realizing the war on drugs is a failure.
I mean maybe if her daughter had proper drug education then she would know that a half gram of MDMA is a ridiculously high dose, although it still shouldn't be enough to kill someone.
I wonder what other factors might be at play

 

[pmoseman]

H0ly, you know I love ya, but do you think kids are getting an education or paying attention in school? They might perk up on hearing about drugs at first, but you know the whole thing will eventually fall back into the routine at school. Oh great, I've got drug education next period, yuck.

 

[somnilicious]

H0ly, you know I love ya, but do you think kids are getting an education or paying attention in school? They might perk up on hearing about drugs at first, but you know the whole thing will eventually fall back into the routine at school. Oh great, I've got drug education next period, yuck.

The stuff they told us in school didn't do anything but make me become interested in drugs. Even graphic movies that portrayed addiction in a horrible light peaked my interest.

 

[opi8]

H0ly, you know I love ya, but do you think kids are getting an education or paying attention in school? They might perk up on hearing about drugs at first, but you know the whole thing will eventually fall back into the routine at school. Oh great, I've got drug education next period, yuck.

So, just like your pedo church members who insist on total abstinence on the sinful act of sex, you suggest no education at all on drug use and a simple "just say no" message, that has been tried for decades and proven to be useless instead of educating them to the risks, you know, like saying that 500mg is way too much, you should always start small and other proven to work harm reduction measures?

Since kids aren't getting an education in schools, we should simply remove all the schools and instead force children into slave labour, or better yet, mandatory religious education instead.

 

[opi8]

By "religious education", I mean, the one true religion, Christianity of whatever flavour it is that you follow. Not real education on all religious and how they are behind a great deal of the world's most heinous crimes against humanity,

In before the obligatory "your twisting my words", "address this other, unrelated point" and "here are some unrelated statistics that back up what I am now trying to say after editing my post".

 

[TheRapperGoneBad]

Damn youd have to be crazy to take a half a gram.
I dont go over 150 anymore.
good message but it takes a death each time. Dont really lkke to see actually mdma in the news getting this kinda attention

 

[edgarshade]

Times are changing. We are halfway in between the parents blaming the dealer or the drug and from identifying the real culprit, which is the government and media who create the situation in which there are all these dodgy pills, misinformation and accidental doses.

 

[Si Dread]

Obviously, people with high tolerance can get through a gram & a half over a weekend. People with a high tolerance can double drop 200mg pills. But some kid in school, 500mg in a single hit is a seriously dangerous dose! I understood it that 800mg (average) was the LD50 for MDMA (I can't cite source for this, so please don't hate!), but that does not mean that 800mg is 50% likely to kill every single person. There could be people for whom half a milligram of MDMA is deadly. Not likely that, I must admit, but the point stands. 500mg is a HUGE dose for a young person! Huge!

more on the same story - http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads...cstasy-death-Mother-wants-to-work-with-dealer

 

[f33lg00d]

Lol kinda makes me feel reckless for taking 400mg MDMA + 2 tabs of LSD the first time I tried MDMA, legitimately thought I was dying at points in the high especially after I smoked weed had an OBE and was pretty sure my cardiovascular system was about to fail. I was 16 or 17 I forget.