Almost a year after her 15-year-old daughter died after taking half a gram of MDMA, Anne-Marie Cockburn, 43, has said she wants to speak to various MPs, including the home secretary Theresa May, about the legalisation of drugs.
Martha Fernback died from a heart attack two hours after taking the drug in July 2013. The MDMA she had was 91 per cent pure, unlike the average street-level purity of 58 per cent. 'It has been 328 days since my precious girl was safely by my side,' Anne-Marie told Oxfordshire Coroner's Court. 'Martha wanted to get high, she didn't want to die – no parent wants either, but one of those is preferable to the other. I wish Martha was sitting her GCSEs alongside her friends at school right now. I wish the drug education she received had enabled her to make a more fully-informed decision, instead of leaving her so vulnerable and in danger.'
Anne-Marie then called upon various MPs to meet with her to discuss legislation of drugs: 'I would like to meet with Theresa May, Norman Baker and Yvette Cooper to start a sensible dialogue for change, from prohibition to strict and responsible regulation of recreational drugs,' The Telegraph reports. 'This will help to safeguard our children and lead to a safer society for us all by putting doctors and pharmacists, not dealers, in control of drugs.'
In a written statement, a friend – who cannot be named because of her age – said that she had gone kayaking with Martha in the morning, who informed her she was going to take the MDMA. They then went into the city centre, where Martha took the drug. As she came up, she told her friend: 'It's amazing, it feels like a dream – it's better than the last time we did it.'
The friend described her appearance and behaviour: 'Her pupils were dilated and her jaw was shaking like she was cold. She kept sitting down like she was tired and was acting strangely.' After meeting up with some other friends in a park, Martha said she wanted to go swimming at a nearby open-air pool to cool off, but when she stood, she fell down and hit her head and it started bleeding.
The friends then tried to sit her up, but 'Martha started to wheeze in her breathing,' another friend said at the Oxford County Court. 'She collapsed and stopped breathing and we all panicked.'
Paramedics were called and they rushed Martha to hospital. However, she was pronounced dead an hour after the collapse. A post-mortem found that she had died as a result of MDMA toxicity and Martha's dealer has been prosecuted. The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death, saying: 'This is a very stark warning of what can happen.'
Over 19 years ago, Leah Betts, 18, died after taking ecstasy at a birthday party. Just like Anne-Marie, who has set up a website and written a book, 5,742 days (the length of Martha's life) to bring awareness to what happened, Leah's parents launched a campaign after her death. However, their campaign was about abstaining from drugs.
Paul Betts said of Anne-Marie: 'Let her talk to Theresa May if she wants to. She wants good to come from bad – like we went through with Leah. It is part of the grieving process. But since 1995, when Leah died, nothing has changed about ecstasy in the sense that you just cannot predict the effect it will have on the body.'
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
Picture: Rex
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.