Bereaved father calls for drug clampdown following son’s death

The father of a young man in Northern Ireland who committed suicide after becoming hooked on cocaine is calling for a clampdown on drug dealers.

Tom McGrath said his 22-year-old son Matthew, who was found dead in County Armagh last year, could switch from “hyper” to “very emotional” and would often cry because ‘he just had enough’. The penalty for possessing the Class A drug is up to seven years in prison, while supply may result in a life sentence.

But the father told BBC Radio Ulster: “How many times do you see them going before the courts and getting custodial sentences? The dealers and suppliers aren’t being prosecuted properly.”

Birth defects

In a letter to UK Government Minister Dame Diana Johnson, 14 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) also called for cannabis to be upgraded from a Class B to a Class A drug.

They criticised recent calls to decriminalise the drug, warning that cannabis has “more birth defects associated with it than thalidomide”.

Alison Hernandez, PCC for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, emphasised: “The fact that we’ve been so blasé about cannabis in society means that people think it’s legal and normal, and it’s not.

“We’ve got to show them that it’s not, and the way you do that is to be quite fierce in your enforcement arrangements.”

Psychosis

Earlier this year, the Chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs told The Times that there is “very compelling evidence” about cannabis’ ability to cause psychosis.

Psychiatrist Professor Owen Bowden-Jones explained that the potency of cannabis has been increasing, but due to discussion around medicinal use people are thinking “well, if it’s a medicine, it can’t be that harmful”.

He warned: “At a time when many people are less and less concerned about the harms of cannabis the risks are actually going up rather than down.”