Anne-Marie Cockburn has been through a lot. On July 20th 2013, her 15-year-old daughter, Martha Fernback, took 0.5g of MDMA, purchased in North Oxford. However, she was unaware that what she was taking was 91% pure – unusually high for ecstasy bought on the street.
Within two hours of taking the drug, Martha was dead. Anne-Marie describes her reaction as “absolute horror. The shock made me feel like I’d been blown up into the air, and I was floating around looking down on a world that I no longer recognized.” Within hours, she had begun to write. Her writing eventually took the form of her first book, 5,742 Days, the story of her journey through loss and bereavement.
This book, a number of high-profile interviews, and a series of public appearances, have been Anne-Marie’s way of coping with the situation, and her priority has been a campaign for the legalization of all drugs.
“A lot of people,” she says, “are surprised that my daughter died from ecstasy but I’m pushing for it to be legalized. It’s because there are no controlling measures in place at the moment. At the moment it’s a reactive system where they just shove people in jail. I’m saying I want a proactive approach based on knowing that prohibition in the 1920s didn’t work. I want everything out on the table, out in the light and for people to use some common sense in this subject.
“From the beginning of time, mankind has wanted to push the boundaries and self-explore. Governmentally, they’re trying to stop us doing natural self-exploration. Young people need to be protected and the only way you can truly protect is taking it away from the criminals, giving the responsibility to medical professionals, putting a label on that bottle, and then you can educate.
“It’s not to say they won’t still take it, but it’ll be safer with that method than going blind at the moment, as they are, and that is that. We’ve had 50 years of prohibition propaganda, which needs to be reversed. We’ve had a lot of confusion about what regulation is, what legalization is, and so on. All drugs need to be legalized in order to regulate.”
In the last month, the Liberal Democrats have announced a plan to review the decriminalization of all drugs for personal use, but with Nick Clegg’s party dropping to fourth in the polls, and drugs off everyone else’s agenda, it is fair to say that no party likely to end up in government is prepared to approach the issue.
“They don’t think it will be a vote-winning decision. But I think it actually would be a vote-winning scenario – I think a lot of people would vote for the party that takes on this baton because it’s something that people have experienced in their lives.”
The comparison with the American prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s is one to which Anne-Marie keeps coming back. “In the ’20s, people were drinking alcohol that was 150% proof. Tiny amounts of it were incredibly powerful, so they could transport and hide it. When you find out all this, you realize it’s no different. Of course we have a lot of alcohol- related medical issues in this country, but I would rather have licensed alcohol than not. Look at smoking. From the 50s to now, smoking has gone down by 30%, and that is due to labelling, licensing, and then educating. Same problem.”
Clearly, Anne-Marie’s end goal of complete legalization is a long way off. But there are measures which she thinks could help protect drug users in the meantime. “Free, widespread drug testing should be accessible. Martha could have made a more informed decision. What she took was 91% pure and had she known that, she would have taken a lot less. She took enough for five to ten people in one go. She thought she was being safe.”
This might sound radical, but music festivals in America as well as clinics in Amsterdam and Wales already provide this service free of charge. “It’s a bit like how underage sex is illegal but young girls can still be on the pill. It’s safeguarding, it’s looking after their health.”
Despite the general political inertia behind new drug-related legislation, there is a groundswell of support for legalization. After the war on drugs began in 1961, the illegal drugs industry has grown to be worth £190bn a year, leading many to think that the US-led campaign has failed, including Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, drugs minister Norman Baker, former chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs David Nutt and, crucially in Anne-Marie’s opinion, the former UK ambassador to Afghanistan Sir William Patey.
In fact, Anne-Marie notes that numerous ambassadors to countries in which the drug trade flourishes, largely South American, have come out in favour of legalization. “These are guys of a certain generation, who have been out there and lived it. That transition of attitude from prohibition to regulation based on being out in the field, we’ve got to listen to that. They know their stuff, so political apathy really bothers me.”
And it’s not just a few prominent experts who are siding with Anne-Marie, “I’ve had teachers, policemen, medical professionals contact me and say ‘we have seen, in our careers, the problems that prohibition causes, and what you’re suggesting is needed.’ I’m not a radical person. I’ve got my feet on the ground. I’m a natural problem-solver. I can’t solve the ultimate problem, to get Martha back. She’s never coming back, and of course I struggle with that. I will never see my child again. Being a bereaved single parent – that’s a fantastic job – it’s hideous, and I would like an MP to stand in my shoes for 30 seconds. Then they wouldn’t be hiding anywhere, they would be treating this as an absolute medical emergency. They know it, they admit it behind the scenes, but they won’t do it on camera because they know it’s frowned upon.
“Life is pretty simple, fundamental needs are pretty simple. I just think we should be nicer to one another, and we should really care. Who wanted to be a drug addict, when you were doing your options at school? Who ticked that box? So if you are, it should be less frowned upon, and more looked at as people losing their way. There will always be bad people who should be put in prison, but a lot of these prisoners are actually people with needs that could be dealt with through the health sector, and that would be better for everyone involved.”
It is clear that Anne-Marie won’t be giving up any time soon. She tells me she wrote to David Cameron the other day, she’s been in touch with Yvette Cooper’s office, and Norman Baker. “I’m going to keep on pushing; the door will open at some point. A headline above a face like Martha’s does something to people.”
