Drug that killed my daughter to be banned, campaigner claims

Published on Wednesday 24 June 2009 21:50

A GRIEVING mother yesterday said the Home Secretary had "committed" to banning a liquid party drug linked to her daughter's death.

Promising medical student Hester Stewart, 21, of Brighton, East Sussex, died in April and police are investigating whether she unknowingly took the substance on a night out with friends.

Maryon Stewart called for an immediate inquiry into why the drug Gamma-Butyrolactone (GBL) had not been banned in Britain and yesterday she met Home Secretary Alan Johnson about the issue.

Following the meeting, Mrs Stewart said: "We are encouraged by our meeting with the Home Secretary. He has committed to ban GBL for personal use.

"He has a consultation already in progress but he has committed to investigate interim measures to ban it sooner.

"He also intends to consult with the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs to review the recommended classification and we are hoping GBL will become a class A drug."

However she raised concerns that the Home Secretary had no evidence of widespread use of GBL, whereas she and her family had figures to show significant sales of the drug in the UK.

Mrs Stewart, a nutritionist, went to the meeting with her husband Dr Alan Stewart, 56, and their daughter Phoebe, 28.

Sussex Police said toxicology tests revealed Miss Stewart's death was due to GBL in conjunction with alcohol. An inquest is to take place next month.

The drug is already banned for personal use in several countries including the US and Sweden but is available at some UK health food shops and can also be bought over the internet.

The government's drug advisers have previously said the "harms and misuse of GBL" made it on a par with a Class C drug.

Mrs Stewart, who called for the meeting because the family wanted to know why GBL was not classified as a drug, said: "We are really encouraged. I liked his (Mr Johnson's] attitude and I think he really took on board that this needs to happen with GBL and also the fact that this is the tip of the iceberg and, as a phase two, we need to look at all the legal (drug) buys.

"My daughter would want us to be doing this. We are a really close family and, if this had happened to anybody else we are close to and she was still here, she'd be doing it with us.

"It's really important. Young people are very vulnerable without adequate information."