Pubdate: Wed, 06 Sep 2006
Source: Swindon Advertiser (UK)
Copyright: 2006 Swindon Advertiser
Contact: http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/aboutus/contactus/
Website: http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4168
Author: Gareth Bethell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

TRAGIC STORY OF A BOY WHO GREW UP TO BE AN ADDICT

WHEN Mary Turner was reunited with her son Michael for  the first time
in four years she thought that he had  finally turned his life around.

Michael had just been released from prison. He had met  a new partner
and was winning his long running battle  with heroin.

He was, she says, full of hope and talking about the  future.

Seeing him looking fit and healthy she dared to believe  that she had
her old son back - the one she knew before  his drug addiction took
hold and led him to a life of  crime.

But yesterday Mary had to face every parent's worst  nightmare and
identify the body of her dead son.

Michael was 31 years old and, after spending most of  his adult life
in and out of prison, he died in the  toilets of Swindon train station
from a heroin  overdose.

Mary says the family will never know why he took the  lethal injection
of drugs.

"Before I saw him I was holding on to the thought that  it might not
have been him," she said.

"I was hoping the police had got it wrong. They hadn't  got it wrong
and it was Michael."

Mary had last seen Michael, of Liden, three weeks ago  when he and his
girlfriend Gemma Newell visited her in  Essex.

"Michael has got a long history of being in prison and  taking drugs
and I'd moved away and hadn't seen him for  four years," she said.

"But three weeks ago he came up with his girlfriend.  She was lovely.
He was clean - he had kicked it on his  own and was trying so hard.

"He was struggling and in pain but he didn't take  anything. I know he
was trying.

"They spent time with me and they went into town and  were playing in
the sea. He was happy.

"I felt I had got him back and now this."

Mary says the whole family, including his brother Gary,  of Park
South, and sister Christine, of Penhill, are in  shock following
Michael's death.

"He had only been out of prison a short while and maybe  the drugs
were a shock to his system.

"Why he took it we will never know but I do know he was  trying."

Mary said her son's death should be a warning to others  who take drugs.

"You don't expect your children to die before you do,"  she said.

"I thought I had got him back. He was getting  somewhere, but he had
struggled for years.

"He hadn't been a good boy. He had been in trouble and  been in prison
but this time he came out and was  trying.

"But once you start taking this stuff it's so hard to  stop.

"Michael had to do horrible things to get money.

"He thought he had turned the corner and we thought so  too."

Police act on your tip-offs LAST month the Adver-backed  Swindon Drugs
Hotline was launched in an effort to free  our town of the misery
caused by the drug trade.

The phone line allows people who are concerned about  drug dealing in
their area to phone and leave  information anonymously.

The tip-off system is already paying dividends with  police revealing
in last week's Adver that they are  following up a number of leads in
east Swindon.

PC Mark Smith said: "The more information we get the  better.

"We can't do anything unless we know it's happening and  we need
people to tell us where there is a problem."

And police revealed on Thursday that they had charged a  suspected
heroin dealer thanks to information from  residents living in the
Broad Green area of town -  proving that officers are acting on what
they are told  by the public.
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MAP posted-by: Derek