A tragic equality leaving trail of loss and anguish

Our reporting on pages 6 and 7 makes for upsetting but important reading.

There may be some who try to convince themselves that the story we bring you doesn’t affect them.

They may categorise the people involved as “junkies” who made their own choices and suffered the consequences.

But the reality is that each and every one of us, if we are truthful, has been touched by drugs in some way.

The new trend we highlight pinpoints how deaths among girls and women have soared in recent years, bringing them much closer to the numbers of deaths among boys and men.

This is an awful equality; one that is leaving a trail of emotional devastation in its wake.

Lost daughters, children without mothers, and grandparents left to fill the void, becoming surrogate parents to their grandchildren while still grieving for their own child.

In particular, the story of Marianne Chandler will resonate with many, many people across Scotland. Her daughter Kym was like any other child until drugs entered her life.

“Sometimes I would look at her and wonder where our lovely child had gone.

“All the good results at school, all her dreams stolen by drugs.”

These are Marianne’s words. Eloquent and heartbreaking.

Kym died at 31, leaving her children under the guardianship of her mum and husband who have changed their lives to help shape those of their grandchildren.

Their situation serves as a horrific reminder of the multiple generations now tainted by drugs.

Young lives filled with potential ended before that potential could ever be fulfilled. Young daughters who never had the chance to put their own mark on the world. A tragedy indeed.