Tara and the evil message that drugs are cool . . .

Until this week, leah Betts was the poster girl of the ‘say no to drugs’ campaign. the haunting picture of her dying in hospital after taking ecstasy at her 18th birthday party became a shocking symbol of the dangers.

now, with the death of tara Palmertomkinson, we have a tragic new poster girl.

it was in 1995 — the very year leah died — that tara was catapulted into public consciousness after being pictured pecking family friend Prince Charles on the cheek in Klosters.

We quickly learned about her oh-so glamorous life and how she lived it to the full. the original it-girl, she epitomised the reckless spirit of the nineties; a life of parties, champagne, fast cars, faster men, luxury holidays — and recreational drug-taking.

As her friend, the Mail journalist Rebecca Hardy, wrote: ‘tara was one of those rare people who, whatever life threw at her, was determined to squeeze as much fun from it as she could.’

Along with so many stars of her generation, Kate Moss among them, she gave the impression that drink and drugs were fun. indeed, ‘loads of fun’, according to another contemporary, Sienna Miller.

it was a message that seduced countless impressionable fans into thinking that binge-drinking and drug-taking were harmless. And it was a wicked lie, because drugs are devastating, as leah and now tara’s family know all too tragically.

Behind tara’s cheeky smile and effervescent personality, she was an addict. Far from having fun, she was frail, deeply insecure, lonely and suffering from depression.

Friends say that in the days before her death, she was ‘in a dark place’. Many believe she was back in the grip of drugs, although at this stage we don’t know what caused tara’s death.

Magazines never show the stints in rehab when the celebs they glamorise try to kick their habits — the delirium they suffer, the agony they endure away from the cameras. What the Sienna Millers of this world never mention are the victims who fall for the idea that drugs are ‘cool’.

Victims like Penny Hargreaves, a lovely, kind 21-year-old trainee nurse who died after taking cocaine. She partied, drank and snorted the drug over a period of two days with friends — and was later found dead in bed.

‘i do not want to be sat here at another inquest into the death of a young person who has everything to live for because of an act of crass stupidity,’ the coroner said.

those who knew tara say she was a woman who had kindness beyond measure, a huge heart and a playful impetuosity that was infectious.

What a tragedy she will now be remembered not for these wonderful attributes, but for the deeply distressing way she died — alone and possibly undiscovered for days.

if ever there was a message here, it is the very opposite of glamour and fun.

it’s the same one as leah’s: drugs — which know no class barriers — are merciless.