So-called ‘party’ drugs are no joke

Recreational drug use grows ever more prevalent in society, with a few pints seemingly not enough to provide many with the weekend buzz they crave. But while everyone knows the dangers of cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy, it’s the lesser-known, experimental drugs with which the risks are not so apparent.

Take fentanyl, a drug said to be 100 times more potent that morphine and responsible for the recent deaths of three young men in Canterbury.

Many of these substances are dubbed ‘party drugs’, but in reality they are no laughing matter and often lead to pain and misery.

Deep down, the people who take this stuff likely know the risks – but it doesn’t stop them.

And it seems that Canterbury’s busking community is particularly vulnerable.

Six years ago, street musicians Daniel Lloyd, 25, and Hugo Wenn, 17, drowned in the Reed Pond in the Old Park after taking a ‘legal high’ called ‘mexxy’.

And in August last year buskers Max Martin, James Truscott and Joshua Lambert-price died in the same week after taking fentanyl.

Inevitably, there has been an outpouring of grief, and this week Joshua’s father describes the devastating effect losing his son has had on his life. It’s a heartbreaking read. But surely now, those who indulge in these substances and mourn at their friends’ funerals must finally get the message. What more could it take?

It may sound fanciful given their widespread use, but we can only hope that the latest unnecessary deaths of three much-loved young men are not in vain.