Anyone's Child on UN Universal Children's Day

Anyone’s Child on UN Universal Children’s Day

**Media Alert**

 

On UN Universal Children’s Day:

Bereaved families lobby Prime Minister and Parliament to legalise and regulate drugs

 

Monday, 20th November 2017

11:30am, 10 Downing St.

12:00, Westminster Hall, Palace of Westminster

 

On United Nations’ Universal Children’s Day, Monday 20 November, ‘Anyone’s Child – Families for Safer Drug Control’ will hand in a letter to 10 Downing St. to call for the legal regulation of drugs.

More people are dying in the UK from illegal drugs than ever before. Families who have lost a loved one as a result of criminalisation will take a powerful message to Parliament:  “Failed UK and UN drug policy killed our children, and the government should take control of the drugs market to protect others”.

We are a group of ordinary families who joined together because we share the grief and sorrow from having loved ones who have been hurt by our failing drug laws. Our group has now expanded internationally including families in Kenya, Afghanistan, Mexico, Canada and Belgium. We are uniting to demonstrate that the drug war causes untold misery in every corner of the world.

 

Jane Slater – Project Manager of the Anyone’s Child Campaign: “It is a tragic irony that the UN is tasked with protecting children’s rights, and yet it encourages its member states to fight a drug war that puts millions of young people in danger. Criminalising drugs puts young people in contact with extreme gang violence, and dirty drugs onto the streets, that kill. Legal regulation means taking drugs out of the hands of criminals and placing it under government control through doctors, pharmacists and licensed retailers helping keep everyone safe. The government has previously refused to meet with us, but every day more families like us are needlessly suffering. We won’t go away until the government starts listening to our voices.”

 

Join the families at 11.30am to hand in their letter to Downing Street, then Westminster Hall at 12:00 to hear their stories, and find out why families are leading the movement to end the failed drug war.

 

Penny McCanny, Aidan’s mum: “I believe that my son would still be alive had he taken something that was legally controlled.  If his dose of heroin had been regulated like a dose of paracetamol or if he had been able to use heroin assisted recovery, or if he hadn’t felt that he would be judged, or if I had understood a little sooner, then he might be alive. Instead my darling boy, my first child, is dead.

Ray Lakeman, father to Jacques and Torin who died together of an accidental ecstasy overdose, said: “Criminalising users does not work as a deterrent. Punishment is ineffective, people re-offend and there are always new users. There is no doubt they are dangerous, they killed my sons, but drugs are more dangerous than they need to be because they are illegal.”

 

​ENDS:​

Contact:

For more info. or to speak to family members from Anyone’s Child Campaign:

Jane Slater,​ Manager Anyone’s Child – Families for Safer Drug Control, 07514 215836

Martin Powell, Head of Campaigns – Transform Drug Policy Foundation, 07875 679 301

 

Spokespeople Available for Interview

Penny, whose son died whilst at University from an accidental heroin overdose: https://anyoneschild.org/penny/

 

Ray whose two sons Jacques and Torin died together from an accidental ecstasy overdose: https://anyoneschild.org/ray/

 

Rose  whose two sons died from heroin:  https://anyoneschild.org/rose-and-jeremy/

 

Aimi who lost her husband Chris to an overdose: https://anyoneschild.org/aimi/

 

Mick and Hope whose son James was sent to prison for a drugs offence: https://anyoneschild.org/hope-and-mick/

 

Cara whose partner died from a heroin overdose https://anyoneschild.org/cara/

 

Notes to editor

  1. Anyone’s Child: Families for Safer Drug Control is an international network of families whose lives have been wrecked by current drug laws and are now campaigning to change them. https://anyoneschild.org/
  2. Transform Drug Policy Foundation is a UK and Mexico based think tank campaigning for the legal regulation of drugs www.tdpf.org.uk  http://www.countthecosts.org/seven-costs/harming-children-and-young-people
  3. The UK has suffered record levels of drug-related deaths for four years in a row https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsrelatedtodrugpoisoninginenglandandwales/2016registrations
  4. United Nations Universal Children’s Day was established in 1954 and is celebrated on November 20th each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children’s welfare.It is the date in 1959 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and in 1989 when it adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. “Universal Children’s Day offers each of us an inspirational entry-point to advocate, promote and celebrate children’s rights, translating into dialogues and actions that will build a better world for Children.” http://www.un.org/en/events/childrenday/