Mum of Leah Heyes issues warning over dangers of drug taking
The 15-year-old died in Northallerton in May 2019 after taking ecstasy
A mother whose teenage daughter died after taking drugs in Northallerton has warned young people against taking drugs.
15-year-old Leah Heyes died in May 2019 after taking ecstasy in a car park.
Her mother - Kerry Roberts - told an inquest hearing 'people don't think it happens' in rural areas but 'it's everywhere'.
Two men who supplied the drug to the teenager are due to be sentenced on Monday (16 November).
An inquest held at the Northallerton's County Hall heard Leah suffered a cardiac arrest and died from intoxication.
During the hearing Leah's mum, Kerry Roberts, warned that cheap drugs are being sold "on doorsteps" in rural towns:
“I think parents don’t know how easy it is for kids to access this and how cheap it is, when we were younger it was a bottle of alcohol or something, but it’s cheaper than that. It is so easy to get - I don’t think we know enough.
"People think of cannabis or cocaine - we don’t know about MDMA and we should try and find out more and what it is.
"It is only when something awful happens, no one thinks about it or says anything about it so it takes something bad to happen for people to take it seriously."
Kerry is now pledging to educate young people about the dangers of taking drugs.
She will work with Julia Mulligan, North Yorkshire's Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.
“I think people need to think and realise how dangerous it is. It’s not just a bit of fun with your friends. It causes serious damage for families.
"Parents, schools and the media all have a part to play. Drugs like MDMA need to be taken more seriously. People know about harder drugs but people don’t know about MDMA.
“I want to work with Julia Mulligan to raise awareness of the issue. If one person listens to me and doesn’t do it, doesn’t take it, then that is all I want. Or if parents listen to me and speak to their kids and it stops even one person doing it, then that is all I want.
"It can’t happen to somebody else - no parent should lose their child in this way."
Julia Mulligan said:
“People think in North Yorkshire it isn’t a problem but it is. We need to come together. We need to understand how these drugs are taken, where they come from and how we disrupt the people who are dealing them.
"People react to drugs in different ways, drugs can be cut in different ways, you don’t know how pure they are or how your body is going to react to them.
“There’s a lot of focus on county lines drugs, crack cocaine, heroine but there are a lot of other drugs in circulation that are causing damage and death, and I think while a lot of work has been done on county lines drugs we need to focus on those other drugs which are causing a lot of harm and we need to understand that better.
“Some of the data in the county is quite out of date, we need a piece of work to understand what is happening in NY and how we can work with that."