LEAR BETTS's mother, Janet, was a nurse. Her father, Paul, was a senior police officer in Essex. If any couple should have spotted drug abuse ill a teenager, they should. But they didn't.
On November 11th last year, Leah had friends visiting to celebrate her 18th birthday. Her mother was in the kitchen when Leah's brother, William (12), told her that Leah wanted her upstairs. Mrs Betts went to the bathroom to find her daughter being violently ill. Her eyes had turned "pure black". Quickly, "being a sensible girl", she told her mother that she had taken an ecstasy tablet before but that it had never had such an effect.
The 18 year old began to lose her footing - "her legs became wobbly". She collapsed. As her mother was phoning ambulance, Leah died in her father's arms. "She just stopped breathing, that's how it happened," Mrs Betts said yesterday.
In a most graphic and personal account of the tragedy, the Betts begged Irish parents at a news conference in Cork City Hall to acquaint themselves with the language of drugs and the effect they can have on young people.
Since that horrendous night, they have learned that Leah died because her brain became swollen due to massive water retention in her body. Together with her friend, Sarah, she took the tablet at 7.45 p.m. in her front room. By 1.45 the drug was fatally attacking her body.
It has been established that the tablet was pure, uncontaminated Ecstasy. Sarah had taken a similar one but she was fine. Leah's urinary system had been shut down by the tablet and she was unable to pass water that night. The result was the death of an 18 year old who had planned to go to university and become a teacher.
Mr and Mrs Betts thought at first that if they went public the family would be stigmatised. Then they decided to speak out and now they're glad they have.
"The thing is that parents know nothing about drugs and many are afraid to ask in case people, especially at public meetings, will look oddly at them. But in your country you still have a chance to do something about it, unlike the UK where the nightmare is getting worse. Cities like Cork can achieve something if they act now. But parents must talk to their kids, find out for themselves what's going on and what the drug scene is all about."
Mr Belts said: "I was a senior police officer, but I had no clue that Leah was taking drugs. Had I asked her and talked to her about it, she might be alive today."
Mrs Betts said that the so called "recreational" drugs such as ecstasy were very hard to detect in the home because, unlike heroin, there were no obvious marks, such as needle marks. But parents, she added, would have to accept the fact that such drugs were being used on a massive scale and that their children were using them because they gave them pleasure. "The problem is that the kids are always chasing that first buzz. Then they must take two, then three tablets, and then more, and that's when the trouble really begins," she said.
Mr Betts said that in Britain each weekend 1.2 million ecstasy tablets were being taken by casual drug abusers and that the industry in the UK was now estimated to be worth £1,000 million annually.
Commanding the anti drugs initiative which was launched publicly last night by Cork Corporation, he said that such moves could make a difference and that the public should give their enthusiastic support to those trying to combat the problem.