Pub] Date: Tue 24th June, 1997
Source: The Scotsman, Edinburgh, UK (http://www.scotsman.com)
Contact:                    Charge all dealers with murder
                          says victim's mother 
                   Family of ecstasy death boy tells campaign launch
                  zero tolerance message must get through to children 
                              GRAEME STEWART 

 THE mother of Scotland's youngest ecstasy
 victim yesterday called for convicted drug pushers
 to be charged with murder or attempted murder. 

 Phyllis Woodlock, who took the decision to
 switch off her 13 yearold son's life support
 machine last Thursday, was expanding on her call
 at the weekend for courts to crack down on drug
 dealers. 

 Trembling with emotion, she said at the launch of
 National Drugs Awareness week: "Our next step
 is to try and change the law so that anyone who
 supplies or sells drugs to someone else should be
 charged with intent to kill or of causing
 someone's death." 

 Andrew Woodlock died last Thursday when
 doctors switched off his life support machine
 after his parents were told he was brain dead.
 Shortly after his death, at Monklands General
 Hospital, his mother said the law should be
 changed so drug dealers could be given tougher
 sentences. 

 "The court system is a waste of time if they can't
 lock people away who have hurt other people
 through drugs  if they're locked up in jail, they
 can't be doing kids any harm," said Mrs
 Woodlock, of New Stevenston, Lanarkshire. 

 Yesterday, she called for everyone to unite in an
 effort to round up known drug pushers by tipping
 off the police through anonymous calls. 

 Mrs Woodlock said she also supported David
 Macauley, the campaigns director of the
 Governmentbacked Scotland Against Drugs,
 who sparked a row at the weekend by turning on
 drug agencies who advocate "harm reduction",
 educating young people on how to take drugs
 safely. She said she could understand those
 agencies, but claimed the philosophy did not
 work. 

 "I am fed up hearing middle class drug workers
 saying there is a safe way to take drugs. 

 Tell that to my never taken drugs before, it is for the poor children of
 this society who are already hooked and have a drugs dependency. 

 "That is why I am behind Mr Macauley 100 per cent in getting the zero
 tolerance message across to our kids in both high schools and primary
 schools. It is a time for all of us to stand together united as one and
 for some people to admit that just maybe they are wrong and fight this
 battle together to help our future generations from taking drugs," she
 said.  

 At the end of her speech, Mrs Woodlock gave a message to the Prime
 Minister, Tony Blair. "I voted for the Labour Party to win the election,
 not because I expect them to do much for the likes of myself but for our
 future generation. Someone has to make this world a safer place for them
 to live in." 

 She said she often wondered where she had got the strength to deal with
 the past few days, but had concluded it was "Andrew's spirit reassuring
 me he's all right. He's with his grandfather who died earlier this year. 

 "So let the launch of National Drugs Awareness Week be the parents of
 Britain saying enough is enough. It is time to fight back  and please
 God, let Andrew Woodlock be the last victim of ecstasy." 

 Netta Maciver, director of Turning Point, the charity which provides
 residential and nonresidential care for drug addicts, said there was a
 place for the "harm reduction" treatment for addicts, but she did not
 think it was of any relevance to a 13yearold boy. 

 "Harm reduction has worked with people who have used drugs and there is
 a place for such treatment for those who have used drugs over a period of
 time. But I don't think it has any place with a 13yearold." 

 Sir Tom Farmer, chairman of the Scotland Against Drugs campaign, said
 education, education and more education was the only answer. "If we can
 work together, I am quite sure we can make a tremendous difference. We
 have to educate children, parents and those in the workplace about the
 dangers of drug abuse."