A mother has shared how she was unaware that drug dealers target children online until her 16-year-old son died from fentanyl bought on Snapchat.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, mother of three Dr Laura Berman described the morning that her son Jackson found his brother Sammy lying unresponsive at home.
When the police reported signs of fentanyl poisoning, Laura contacted one of Sammy’s friends, who showed her a screenshot of ‘a colourful menu of drugs’ sent directly to Sammy by a dealer on Snapchat, offering home delivery.
‘Home wasn’t safe’
She said: “The dealer had solicited my son, and probably countless other children, right through their phones. I was staggered that this was even possible.
“As a relationship therapist, I prided myself on being an informed, modern parent. We’d talked to our children about drugs, social media, bullying and naked pictures.
“But I thought that buying drugs meant knowing – and meeting – a drug dealer. Home was the one place I had always believed my boys were safe.”
Peer pressure
Shortly before his death, Sammy had told his mother: “The only kids who will hang out with me are the ones who take drugs.”
But she explained: “I’d told him absolutely not – he couldn’t take drugs to win kids over. I don’t know what drug he had intended to buy that day that was laced with fentanyl, but I am certain it would have only been to impress his peers.”
“Rationally, I knew that Sammy was a good kid who had made a terrible, impulsive decision. But the guilt was horrendous. As his mother, my fundamental job had been to keep him safe, and I hadn’t. I tortured myself: What if I hadn’t gone to the shops? If I’d banned social media? If I’d been a stay-at-home mother?”
Now, Berman’s husband campaigns for safer social media and raising awareness about fentanyl, while she founded the Grief Healing Collective to support other families.
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