Welsh mother wants to legalise the drugs that killed her child
After the tragedy of losing her son, Welsh mum Nadia Rees is calling for legal control and regulation of the drug market so that other parents never have to go through the same thing. Nadia is sharing her story alongside Welsh service users, providers, and politicians at a public event in Brecon on 16th October. This event will face the reality of what drugs mean for Welsh families and host an urgent conversation about how to save lives and protect the community.
From 12 PM onwards the public can visit the Cathedral to tour the UK’s first unsanctioned Overdose Prevention Centre, which previously operated in Glasgow. They will also be able to receive education and information about problematic substance use, receive life-saving training in the naloxone overdose reversal drug, and meet service users to learn how lives have been changed.
There will be a striking memorial of 4,517 hand-made forget-me-not flowers for lives lost to drugs in the UK in 2021. Visitors are encouraged to make a flower themselves to remember a life lost to or damaged by substance use
When: Monday 16th October
12 PM onwards
Event begins 6:30 PM
Where: Brecon Cathedral, LD3 9DP
The free speaker event is at 6:30 PM. Speakers:
- Nadia Rees, Anyone’s Child: Families for Safer Drug Control
- James Evans MS for Brecon and Radnorshire
- The Very Rev’d Dr Paul Shackerley, Dean Brecon Cathedral
- Wesley Cunliffe, Child Criminal Exploitation and youth violence Training & Awareness Practitioner with lived experience of the Criminal Justice System and addiction
- Linda Hutchings the Service User experience and the Powys Peer programme
- Meg Jones, Director of New Business and Services, Cranstoun
- Martin Blakebrough, CEO Kaleidoscope
- Sarah Langford, Service Manager, Adferiad Powys Children and Young Peoples service
- Martin Powell, Head of Partnerships, Transform Drug Policy Foundation
Attendees can register here.
Nadia Rees, Aberdare mum and Anyone’s Child Campaigner whose son died of an overdose.
“To keep our children as safe as possible we need to take the supply of drugs away from criminals and put them under the control of our government. I wish it wasn’t too late for my son, Ben.”
Jane Slater, Campaign Manager for Anyone’s Child: Families for Safer Drug Control
“Making drugs illegal isn’t keeping our children safe, it’s putting them in danger. We need to give control of the market to this government so that our families can be better protected.”
Martin Blakebrough, CEO of Kaleidoscope
“The success of needle syringe exchanges in reducing transmission of bloodborne viruses has long been acknowledged by government, but we cannot keep giving homeless people a needle syringe with only the street or public park to inject in. We need to provide safe places for people who use drugs to inject in, to keep the service users and the wider community safe from harm”
