Mother says parents should talk to their children about drugs

The mother of a teenager who died after taking ecstasy has encouraged parents to talk to their children about how to reduce the risks of drug use.

Anne-Marie Cockburn's daughter Martha Fernback of Oxford, died in 2013 at the age of 15 after taking 0.5 g of MDMA, which turned out to be 91% pure.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4's PM, Ms Cockburn said she could understand it felt “counter-intuitive” as most parents would not want their children to put themselves “in danger”.

“But some of them will. And it's much harder to talk about your child in the past tense than to have a conversation with them about damage control,” she said.

Martha was an “extraordinary person who was still figuring out who she was” when she died, Ms Cockburn said.

On July 20, 2013, Martha met with her friends at a local park and took ecstasy.

She died three hours later.

“I was just organising our summer holidays when I got the call that no parent likes to receive,” said Ms Cockburn.

She said Martha had told her about the drugs two months earlier.

“I was really shocked that she told me the truth and I didn't really know what to say… So I just yelled at her.”

Ms Cockburn said shielding children and teenagers from the realities of drug use would not stop them from taking them.

“It will just make them feel like their parents live in a different world than them,” she said.

She said she wished she had contacted Martha when she had the chance.

“I didn’t listen to her,” she said.

However, she said a change in government policy was also needed to halt the rise in drug-related deaths.

“Parents like me have to get up every day, be brave and face our lives without our children,” she said.

A Home Office spokesman said the government was “deeply concerned” about the impact of illegal drugs on the population.

They said: “We will continue to work with partners in health, policing and wider public services to reduce drug abuse, tackle the criminals behind the drug trade and advance our mission to make the streets safer.”

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