Pubdate: Mon, 30 Aug 1999
Source: Scotsman (UK)
Copyright: The Scotsman Publications Ltd 1999
Contact:  http://www.scotsman.com/
Forum: http://www.scotsman.com/
Author: Tracey Lawson

'DRUGS KILL ... CHRIS KNEW THAT'

Grieving Mother Tells Of Her Heartbreak As Strathclyde'S Death Toll
Continues Relentless Climb

HE WAS the football-playing, marathon-running son of loving middle-class
parents. He had a job, friends, a new home to call his own and was looking
forward to getting his first car.

But Christopher McLellan also had an addiction to drugs that overshadowed
the promise of his young life. It led him to his grave at the age of 21.

His mother, Mary, remains as stunned by his death as she was the day he told
her of his addiction to speed and cannabis four years earlier.

"To me, Christopher was the antithesis of a drug user. He was a fit boy, so
bright and healthy and full of fun. I have no idea how it started or why.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen to us."

In Strathclyde so far this year, the parents of 99 suspected drug users have
echoed her words of loss as the toll of death climbs relentlessly. Mrs
McLellan believes the picture is bleaker than police estimates suggest or
health officials are willing to admit.

She said: "Within ten yards of Christopher's grave, there are the graves of
five more young people who died as a result of drugs. But they are not
registered officially as drugs deaths.

"One boy died in hospital from a condition related to his drug abuse, and
two committed suicide, because they could no longer stand the fight of
trying to get off drugs. The struggle was just too much.

"Only when all drug-related deaths are included in the official figures will
people start to realise how bad this problem really is."

When she found Christopher dead from a heroin overdose in his new flat 18
months ago, it was the end of a four-year battle which he sometimes appeared
to be winning. The roller-coaster of delirium and desperation which
rehabilitating addicts ride ended for him with an accidental overdose, which
came after almost 12 months without using drugs.

"He was just 17 when he came to us and said he was taking cannabis and
speed, and I think he knew he was an addict then. We were stunned beyond
belief. But he wanted our help and we did what we could," recalls his mother.

With the help of Calton Athletic, the Glasgow-based drugs group which aims
to rehabilitate addicts with a tough physical regime and total abstinence,
Christopher became clean of drugs time and time again. But it was never to last.

His mother, who believes all suppliers of drugs causing the death of addicts
should be pursued and charged with culpable homicide, said: "He came off the
drugs and was sick and in pain for days with the withdrawal. It was a
terrible thing to watch. But he really wanted to beat his addiction. He
tried so hard.

"Then he would say that was it for good. But then you would see he was a
little bit moody, not his bubbly self, and you would know he was taking
drugs again. Then it was through the whole process one more time. So many
times. On and off.

"Psychologically, he simply wasn't strong enough. Drugs alter the state of
mind. Christopher just never felt normal when he was not taking drugs, when
it should really have been the other way round.

"And I think he had low self-esteem, because he was ashamed of what his
addiction was putting us through as a family."

Despite the sad truth of his life and death, to those unaware of his
addiction, Christopher appeared to be a clean-living boy.

The son of a hospital night sister and a charge nurse, he was the youngest
of four children, the adored baby of the family.

After leaving school at 16, he worked as a van driver despite his drug use,
and remained a warm and considerate son. His addiction never led him to
steal, or get into trouble with the police.

So desperate were his parents to help that when Christopher said he wanted
to make a fresh start, they left the Victorian villa in Dennistoun, Glasgow,
where they had lived for 25 years and moved to a detached home in rural
Renfrewshire.

But after less than three months, Christopher told his parents that he was
missing the city, and found a flat of his own in Glasgow. Just days later,
and after almost a year of being clean of drugs, his parents found him dead
of a heroin overdose.

His mother says: "It was just a tiny amount. I have no information that it
was particularly pure. But I am sure it was pretty much his first hit in a year.

"Drugs kill. We knew that. Christopher knew that. But young people think
they are invincible.

"The mother of one addict even told me that she even envies me, the position
I'm in now, because it such a horrendous way to live, knowing what the
future could hold for your child." 

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