Please Take Action: Ask your MP to be at the Parliamentary Debate on Drugs, Thursday 30th Oct, and to vote to review our drug laws!

My name is Anne-Marie Cockburn. Last year I got the phone call no parent wants, to say that my 15 year-old daughter, and only child, was gravely ill, and they were trying to save her life. Sadly, one hour later Martha died from an accidental ecstasy overdose.

I have spent many hours painstakingly deliberating about drug policy since my precious girl died. I believe it is now time MPs did so too, to ensure our drug laws protect the young and most vulnerable.

At the moment, the drugs market is in the hands of dealers who sell contaminated products of unknown strength to anyone, with no dosage or health and safety advice. I now believe that with a different approach, my daughter might still be alive, so I am working with the Transform Drug Policy Foundation to call for reform.

That is also why I am appealing to you personally, so please take a few moments to contact your MP to ask them to represent you by attending the Parliamentary debate on drugs on Thursday, 30th October, and voting for the first independent review of UK Drug Policy in over forty years. This will help pave the way for a safer society.

This is the first step needed to change our drugs laws so that they are based on evidence of what works. Polling shows 2/3 of the public back such a review, and The Sun – formerly an opponent of reform – has also come out in support.

Caroline Lucas MP’s petition was backed by nearly 135,000 of you, which has forced Parliament to have this debate. Please now help deliver necessary change by contacting your own MP, because as long as our failed drug policy remains unchanged I will wake up every day with the fear that there will be another Martha, and another family will have to live with a tragic loss like mine.

If you want to know more about me and Martha, please visit whatmarthadidnext.org

Thank you very much.

Anne-Marie Cockburn (Martha’s mum)

N.B. The function to contact your MP has now been removed from this page.