Opinion: Dark times require a flexible approach

We do not want to be driven towards an obsessive and, indeed, misplaced focus only on illegal drugs. For this reason we have had strategies in relation to substance misuse that are concerned with the misuse of illegal drugs, over-the-counter medicines, prescription drugs, alcohol and volatile substances.

The sad part was the phone call I received on New Year's Day some years ago from a youth club member saying that one of his close friends, aged 13, had died the night before from sniffing lighter fuel. My whole week was consumed by that tragedy.

I remember almost every moment vividly. The rendezvous with Peter's mates less than an hour after the phone call, stopping the action in the youth club later that week to talk about loss and mourning, liaising with the vicar about appropriate comments that might be made at the church service, and supporting individual young people in their grief.