Parents have been warned to be alert to the dangers of ecstasy, following the death of a 17-year-old girl. Alison Davis from Bray died last Saturday after taking an ecstasy tablet.
The Minister with responsibility for the drugs strategy, Mr Eoin Ryan, expressed his sympathy for the Davis family and said he couldn't imagine the devastation they were going through. "It's a tragic situation for the family," he said, adding there were very strong concerns about the widespread availability of drugs such as ecstasy.
The Minister said he was considering forming task forces which would consist of experts from the education services, the Garda and health boards. "Structures have to be in place all over the country," Mr Ryan said. The fact that the drug was now cheaper than ever before had also increased its customer base, he said.
Some teenagers had too much money to spend and that encouraged them to dabble in drugs, according to Mr John Whyte, spokesman for the National Parents' Council. "At the moment, some kids have too much money because they are working much younger now," he said. "That can be a dangerous thing. Many of them also have access to ATM machines so they can withdraw money when they want it at night."
Mr Whyte also highlighted the connection between raves and ecstasy. "You can't have raves without ecstasy. About 90 per cent of parents don't realise that," he said. "Remember, it's not `other people's children' who take drugs."
He warned that gardai in towns such as Athlone, Portlaoise and Mullingar had found teenagers coming down from ecstasy were using heroin. "That gets them into long-term drug addiction."
The last official figure from a European survey on alcohol and drug misuse showed 9 per cent of Irish teenagers surveyed had experimented with ecstasy at some stage. That was in 1995. A new figure will be available later this year and is likely to be significantly higher.
According to Ms Davis's friends, she had only taken one tablet on the night she died, and it had been the first time she had experimented with the drug.
Speaking on Morning Ireland yesterday, her father, Mr John Davis, said the family were heartbroken at her death. He pointed to the role of drug dealers in her death, and said if she had not been given the tablet she would still be alive. "My only hope is that something good will come out of this," he said.
"No parent, and I mean no parent, should have to bury their child under the circumstances that we did," he added.
