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This story was written by a grandparent following the tragic death of her much loved grandson and is published with her and David's parents kind permission.
DAVID'S DEAD
'David's dead', these were the two words that told me that on the 3rd May 2007 my 23 year old grandson was dead. These words were said without warning or emotion and will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Some 20 minutes later the where and when was revealed and that heroin was the likely cause of death. It is not my intention to explain why and how heroin came in and ended my grandson's life, but to let it be known the way as a family no support of any kind was offered from the authorities.
I am writing this from my perspective as a grandmother and a family member who experienced the tragic death of a loved young man from a heroin overdose.
A few hours after David's death a police liaison officer called at David's mothers home while the officer was excellent, when all the relevant information was given he left leaving his mobile number and after a few short telephone contacts, David's parents never saw him again.
The individual police officers who continued to investigate David's death were very respectful to David's parents and to the memory of David.
The following days were in limbo as because others were implicated in David's death we didn't know if his death was an accident, homicide or suicide.
As no family member had identified David's body, David's mother had to ask to see David in the police mortuary. The family had to see David's body to make sure it was him.
As in all sudden deaths an autopsy was to be arranged and depending on the outcome we were told that David's body could in fact not be released for weeks as others were connected to his death and the court system was now involved.
Within 10 days David's body was released and a funeral was arranged, we were also told that a person had been charged with the supply of heroin. After that information no further contact was made by any authority and we were left on our own.
I don't really know why I began to contact various authorities and the local news paper. I knew that anyone I contacted would not bring David back. I just felt that a young man had died and no one cared - another JUNKIE DEAD!!
Meetings were made and attended by various authorities but in the end nothing happened. Once we stopped peddling the machine stopped and to this day no one has came to our door.
The local newspaper has been the most supportive. They recognised our hurt and tears and that David was among many young people locally, also in Scotland and UK wide, that have died due to illegal drugs and that these young people have came from "normal " families.
One of the significant failures was that some months later I read in a local newspaper that a court case pertaining to David's death was due to take place on a certain date. The fiscals office had failed to notify David's parents of the court date.
My other concern is the children of a parent who has died from an illegal drug.
While the child is supported and protected from within the family, the child has to face the outside world and that world can be very cruel. Incidents have occurred in schools where the child has been called names and references being made about their dead junkie parent. I think that the schools have a role to protect any child in this situation.
Recently I saw an article from the office of the Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing, regarding family and illegal drugs. I was sent a booklet called Overdose: Bereavement, What Happens Now? I found the booklet very informative and this would have been very helpful to our family when David died. I contacted the local newspaper who have since published a two page article.