News: 10 yr old in Ecstasy Overdose 16/07/2002

A 10-YEAR-OLD girl, said to be bubbly and popular, died after swallowing a tablet of ecstasy, police suspected last night.
Jade Slack who is believed to be the
youngest person in Britain to die of a drug overdose
Latest world news
Jade Slack was spending the afternoon with a 10-year-old friend at a house close to her home near the historic city of Lancaster in England on Sunday when she began to feel ill.
She was taken to Lancaster Royal Infirmary where she died yesterday morning.
Jade is the youngest person in Britain to die of a drug overdose.
Police believe they found ecstasy at the house and say a "strong line of inquiry" is that she had taken ecstasy.
Three people, two women and a man aged 18 to 20, were arrested by police after her death.
Detective Superintendent Ian Jones, who is leading the investigation, said the occupants of the house the children visited were known to Jade's friend.
"We have recovered articles from the house and from one of the people in custody," he said.
"We have reason to believe this may be ecstasy.
"While we cannot at this stage confirm that Jade died directly as a result of this, it is obviously a strong line of inquiry."
Supt Jones said the three people were held in custody and would be questioned further today.
Toxicology tests were being carried out to confirm that ecstasy killed Jade.
Supt Jones said while the 10-year-old girl was "a totally untypical victim", it showed "the horror that drugs can effect".
Jade's parents Simon, a milkman, and Beverley were said to be distraught and unable to comment.
A special assembly was held at Jade's primary school yesterday and many children cried on hearing the news.
"Everyone at the school is terribly shocked by the tragic death of Jade at the weekend," said Barbara White, head teacher at Jade's primary school.
"She was a bubbly, popular girl who will be greatly missed by us all.
"Jade was in many of the school sports teams and scored in the last football match.
"She will be remembered for her friendly nature and ready smile."
The school chaplain Reverend Keith Henshall said he had never known a tragedy like this.
Supt Jones said police became aware of Jade's suspected overdose when they received a call that a young girl was being taken to hospital.
"As a result of that, we followed the issues through and it now appears the girl was indeed out with a friend of similar age and together they visited a home which is known to the friend of the girl that has sadly died," he said.
"While they were there, the girl complained of feeling unwell and she was taken to hospital.
"We now believe that she may have taken some drugs at that home, which resulted in her death."
Jade's death comes almost seven years after 15-year-old Anna Wood, of Belrose, died of an ecstasy overdose in Sydney. The teenager became the first person in NSW to die from the party drug.
She had been partying with friends at the Phoenician Club, Broadway, on the night she died.
The club was closed down shortly after her death.
Daily Telegraph
I feel the title is misleading but it is what the media has put up 'to grab attention'.
Anyway, waiting to see what the toxicology tests show.
Comments?
[ 15 July 2002: Message edited by: wazza ]

Click to expand...

Girl, 10, killed by Ecstasy when she went out to play
By Russell Jenkins
A GIRL aged ten has become Britain’s youngest victim of Ecstasy. She collapsed and died after taking up to five tablets.
Jade Slack found the drug in a cottage where she had been taken by a friend, also aged ten, to play on Sunday.
Police later arrested two women and a man, all aged between 18 and 20. Detectives were questioning them yesterday about the events that led to Jade’s death. The pills that she took are known as Ferraris because they are stamped with a picture of the sports car.
The tragedy has deeply shocked residents of Galgate. Jade was the daughter of the village milkman and was described by her headmistress as a “very happy, loving and friendly little girl”. She was well known in the village, where she congregated with her friends near the Spar shop.
Villagers said that she had enjoyed an evening of singing and dancing at a talent show at her school, Ellel St John’s primary, on Friday and attended a friend’s birthday party on Saturday.
The following afternoon she was taken to a stone cottage five minutes from her home to play with the occupier’s toddler. Jade, the youngest of three children, collapsed soon after arriving.
It was thought at first that she had found the tablets after complaining of feeling unwell and going upstairs, possibly to lie down. But Detective Superintendent Ian Jones, who is leading the inquiry into her death, said that she complained of feeling unwell after swallowing the suspected Ecstasy tablets. It was unclear where in the house she had found them.
Detectives are also investigating a possible delay by those around Jade in contacting the emergency services. It is understood that her oldest sister, Zara, 17, who was called to the cottage after Jade collapsed, had to find an uncle to take her to hospital, where she died about 6pm.
When police arrived at the house they found it empty. The three adults being questioned were arrested later in Lancaster.
Jade’s parents, Simon and Beverley Slack, said that police had asked them not say anything about Jade’s death.
The Slacks live in a well-kept semi-detached dormer bungalow in Galgate, an unpretentious former mill village on the outskirts of Lancaster. It once boasted one of the last remaining working silk mills in the country but an imposing chimney stack is all that remains.
The rows of weavers’ stone cottages strung out on either side of the A6 are another reminder of the village’s industrial past, but most of the 2,500 residents live in sprawling estates of terraced and semi-detached housing behind the main road. There is a post office, a Spar shop and several pubs.
Galgate is two miles from Bailrigg, the main campus of Lancaster University, and is a popular place for students seeking accommodation.
Yesterday police with dogs checked the Slack family’s home for “anything that might give (Jade) ideas about taking drugs”. Mr Jones added: “Nothing to the detriment of Jade or her family should be read into that.”
The superintendent, who is operations co-ordinator for a scheme to prevent street crime in Lancaster, said: “We have been putting a lot of effort into combating the drugs problem in areas including Lancaster. It’s very sad that, despite all that, we now have this death. Yet again it is an instance of the harm that drugs can do.”
Mr Jones insisted that there was no reason to believe that anyone had given the drugs to Jade. “We have yet to establish how she did take that drug, if indeed she did.”
Forensic science experts spent yesterday examining the two- bedroom cottage, home to a young single mother, where Jade found the tablets.
Lancashire police would not confirm reports that officers had been called to the house three weeks ago after complaints by neighbours. Yesterday, a policewoman stood outside the cottage, where a pram and a pushchair stood in the porch.
A memorial service was held at Jade’s school yesterday. The children were encouraged to recall their former classmate and some drew pictures of her dressed up and dancing on Friday evening. Others remembered her winning every race at the school sports day.
Barbara White, the headmistress, said: “Jade was very popular in school and liked by everybody. She was very into sport and represented the school at rounders, skittleball and football. She was just a lovely little girl.”
After hearing of the tragedy, Hilton Dawson, the MP for Lancaster and Wyre, renewed warnings against downgrading Ecstasy, which is classed alongside cocaine and heroin. He said: “It is very clear there are tremendous dangers associated with the use of Ecstasy. We have seen this from very tragic deaths which have occurred from its use.”
A Home Office reply to a Commons inquiry has said that it would be irresponsible to reclassify Ecstasy. The cross-party Home Affairs Committee said in May that the drug was dangerous and “nothing should be done to imply that the taking of Ecstasy is harmless, legal or socially desirable”.
A Home Office spokesman said: “We still have much to learn about the long-term harm Ecstasy causes. But what we do know is that it can kill unpredictably and there is no such thing as a safe dose. All killer drugs including Ecstasy should remain Class A.”
A spokesman for the charity DrugScope said that if Ecstasy had caused of Jade’s death it would be “the youngest reported case that we are aware of”.

Click to expand...