Rachel’s pain may f inally expose danger of ‘soft’ drugs

THERE can’t be many parents of teens who didn’t feel a pang of sympathy for Rachel Allen as she put her game face on before serving tea and cakes at the Kennedy Summer School.

Her son Josh is 18 – and an adult in the eyes of the law – but Rachel knows that he’s secretly still a newborn underneath his trendy clothes.

She also knows now, if she didn’t before, how cannabis has replaced alcohol as the drug of choice for many youngsters.

It is commonly on sale in secondary schools, in shopping centres and, and, despite the mental health problems it can trigger, such as schizophrenia in some young men, it enjoys a clean bill of health.

There’s massive public debate of how obesity and alcohol can damage children’s health but we have our heads in the sand when it comes to ‘soft’ drugs. Leave well enough alone, seems to be the official policy.

Perhaps a start was made about raising awareness in Rachel’s statement after her son’s arrest where she acknowledged his wrong-doing and her devastation, while also highlighting her parental responsibility: ‘We do not in any way condone his actions, in fact, we utterly condemn them, but it is not for us to condemn him.

‘We must now try to look after our son and our family, the best way we can.’

And the rest of us need to wake up to the grave dangers posed by cannabis.