REAL LIVES One pill will kill
JUST ONE PILL
Unite backs Belfast cross- community anti-drugs fight
William Burns keeps his son’s ashes in a small white box. It is a constant reminder of a knock on his door at 3.25 am on November 19 last year.
At first taxi-driver William thought someone must have got the wrong house. In fact they were police officers.
William’s son Jamie was out for the night with his mates at the Queen’s University students’ union. “Your son has been involved in an accident,” said the police officer.
The accident to which the policeman referred related to drugs. To be accurate, one pill. That tablet, thought to be Ecstasy, had such a devastating impact he was rushed to hospital.
When William got to the hospital, the ward sister told him that Jamie’s condition was serious. He was taken to see him.
“When I talk to people whose son or daughter is dabbling in drugs, I try and describe what it’s like. I saw my son on a trolley with a tube in his mouth. His shirt was ripped open and his sleeves were rolled up and there were wires coming out of his skin. There was blood all over the floor.
“I looked at my son and I could see him dying and you know you can’t do anything about it. I’m not a religious person but I prayed to every single god.
“As soon as I saw the doctor I knew there
was nothing they could do. The doctor said, ‘He’s gone’.
“At that moment the world just stopped. I had to phone his elder sister. The scream she let out will live with me for ever.”
William, determined his son’s death should not be in vain, started a campaign, One pill can kill. As part of that campaign, which has received the full backing of Unite Community, William accepts invitations from parents’ to speak to their children – some as young as 12 – about the dangers of drug-taking.
“I tell them I had to identify Jamie’s body a few days later – I say how they pulled a curtain back and there was my 23-year-old son lying in a black body bag. A few days earlier he had been laughing and joking; a strapping young man, six foot tall and 14 stone.
“He was a perfectly normal 23-year-old. He worked in a BT call centre in the week and went to football and concerts at weekends. His death – and the cause of it – was such a shock to everyone who knew him.”
If the children William is speaking to remain unmoved, he produces that white box and takes out a transparent bag of grey powder. Perhaps they mistake it for a bag of drugs.
But then William gives them the bag to hold and tells them, “You are holding my son. That’s what drugs can do to you. You
24 uniteWORKS Summer 2017
see a look of horror on their faces. It seems to have the desired effect.”
William started his campaign by posting his thoughts on Facebook and it grew from there. “Before Jamie’s death I had no idea how serious the drugs problem was.”
One of the central messages William is trying to get over is that there is nothing remotely resembling ‘quality control’ in the manufacture of these pills. It’s possible Jamie simply encountered a ‘bad batch’. But that can mean the difference between life and death.
“One parent got in touch with me on a Saturday saying her son went missing on the Friday night. It turned out that he had taken 15 ecstasy tablets and was still alive. My son took one tablet and he died. Drug dealers don’t care. All they want is your £10.”
The drugs are openly on sale on Facebook. People set up fake profiles to sell them and Facebook lets them get away with it, explains William.
“The government spends thousands of pounds on adverts warning people about drinking and driving – but more people died last year because of opiates than were killed on the roads.”
His wife Lesley points out that it is now easier for children to obtain drugs than alcohol or cigarettes.
Darren Kidd/Press Eye
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36