Drug-user’s partner tells of heartbreak
Jess Waldon says deadly synthetic drugs destroy many more than their users
Calum Jones was planning a festive proposal to his girlfriend and spoke to his father at length about how much he loved her and how his life was about to change for the better.
But he died at his family home in Henderson on September 1.
He had been battling an addiction to synthetic drugs and had used shortly before his death.
Four months later, girlfriend Jess Waldon is still reeling from losing the love of her life — she’s angry he’s gone, lost without him and heartbroken. “He was my best friend.” Jones is one of at least 20 people thought to have died from synthetic drugs last year.
Figures supplied to the Herald by police show that from January 1 to September 30, 120 people were charged with supplying a psychoactive substance and 97 people were charged with possessing a psychoactive substance.
No one has been charged in relation to Jones’ death.
“The last time I saw Calum was when I was leaving for work that day,” Waldon said said. “He gave me a big bear hug, like he always used to do. We were planning for a big Father’s Day weekend for him — we were going to spend the Sunday with his daughter, we had really cool things planned.”
After midday she got a call from Jones’ panicked mother telling her to come to the house, quickly. “I said to my workmate — this is it.”
Jones started smoking cannabis socially at 13 and by the time he was 15 he was a daily user. At the end of 2013, he discovered synthetic drugs, which were then legal, and they became his drug of choice.
His parents, Lorraine and Lewis, at their wits end, got a court order to put him into detox and from there he went into a rehab programme.
Two days before he died he was moved from full-time rehab to a day programme.
The night before he died he spent hours talking to Lewis about his future — the first time in years Calum had voiced any hope or made any plans. He told his father he was going to propose to Waldon at Christmas.
“I said to him we could move in together once he got clean — that was a pretty big incentive,” Waldon said. The couple were in a relationship for years as teenagers, then broke up but stayed close friends.
He had a daughter with another partner, and then got back with Jess at the start of last year.
“For at least the last two months he was back to Calum, he was doing really, really well, everything was normal again and he was happy.”
One of the things Waldon treasures is a jar she gave Jones in rehab. She had filled it with pieces of paper, each bearing a reason he should stay clean.
“That day that I took it to him he sat there and read every single note.”
A decision has not been made on whether an inquest will be held.
While Waldon wants some kind of accountability around Jones’ death, what she wants more is for her message to get through.
“People using — it’s not just you that it affects, it’s everybody around you, your family, your friends, your partner. And to the people that are selling?
“They’re destroying and ending lives, but not just of the people that they are selling to,” she said.
“They are destroying a lot of people around that single person.”