‘I approached my own son for drugs’: Life at the centre of the benzo crisis

Published

11 months ago

December 15, 2023

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“It was an all consuming fear that I would just stop breathing in my sleep, but still, all I wanted was to take more.”

“I approached my own son in the street asking for drugs, that’s how low I was, benzos just destroyed my life.”

These are the stories of two separate people with the same catastrophic addiction to a prescription drug.

Thirty years apart in age and 200 miles apart in distance, their stories are scarily similar.

I meet Rory Maslen (they/them), 21, at their university flat in Leeds. As Rory sank into the sofa, they look at me with a timid smile.

They’re about to talk me through haunted years. The ones filled with an undying desperation to guzzle more of the drug that was killing them.

Inside the four walls of Rory’s university room once lived anxiety, depression and what they thought was the remedy – benzos.

“There were weeks at a time when the only reason I would leave my accommodation was to go and pick up a few boxes of pills.

“I was literally eating pills by the handful just to get through the day.”

Across the border in Edinburgh, William Anderson, 53, sits in his temporary accommodation generously recounting his painful tale, as I hang on his every word.

“After my daughter died when I was 19, I turned to benzos to cope with the grief.

“I got them prescribed by the doctor – seven pills a day – but when that wasn’t enough I started getting them on the street too.”

What are benzos?

Benzodiazepines are anti-anxiety prescription drugs that have flooded the illicit market.

The drug is supposed to be prescribed, but thousands of vulnerable people across the UK are buying dangerous street benzos to self-medicate according to charities like Turning Point and UKAT.

And now testing services are raising the alarm after finding street benzos sold for as little as 10p are being cut with a synthetic opioid 10 times stronger than Fentanyl.

‘Stripped of any free will’

What began as self-medication for Rory turned into self destruction.

“Before I knew it, I was completely stripped of any free will, any major thought in my head all the time was focused on getting more benzos.”

Rory told me they were taking 30 benzo pills per day when they started experiencing life threatening seizures and side effects.

“Your muscles hurt, your bones hurt, you have constant tremors and if you go outside in the sun it feels like your eyes are burning. You’re hot and cold, more so than I’ve ever felt ever before.”

‘Approached my own son for drugs’

For Will, a lifetime of trauma, grief and isolation drove him to dive head first into what he calls “benzo oblivion”.

Taking 100 pills a day and selling benzos to fuel his addiction, Will was on the edge of death.

After a 20 year battle with benzos, Will tells me he tried to take his own life. The amount of benzos he took knocked him out for four days, but still he continued using.

“The lowest moment of my life was approaching a group of guys in the street and asking for drugs.

“When I looked up I realised it was my own son – the only son that was still in contact with me.

“The look of shame he had was the worst feeling in the world.

“The next morning I woke up and screamed in the mirror, you either live or you die.”

Will has been sober ever since that day.

He created his own support group called “Oor Willie”, which now has over 1,700 members, and he trained with the Scottish Drugs Forum qualifying as an addiction support worker in August.

It was Rory’s passion for music and their drive to get back to playing with their band Kiosk that gave them the courage to bear through and taper off the benzos with the support of their family.

When I asked Rory and Will what they would say to young people considering self-medicating with benzos now, their response was the same.

“Drugs aren’t the answer.”

Teenage girl killed on M5 in Somerset after getting out of police car named

Published

1 hour ago

November 15, 2024

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Teenage girl killed on M5 in Somerset after getting out of police car named

A teenage girl who was killed after getting out of a police car on the M5 in Somerset has been named.

Tamzin Hall, 17 and from Wellington, was hit by a vehicle that was travelling southbound between junction 24 for Bridgwater and junction 25 for Taunton shortly after 11pm on Monday.

She had exited a police vehicle that had stopped on the northbound side of the motorway while transporting her.

A mandatory referral was made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which is now carrying out its own investigation into what happened.

Avon and Somerset Police said: “Our thoughts and sympathies go out to Tamzin’s family for their devastating loss.

“A specially-trained family liaison officer remains in contact with them to keep them updated and to provide support.

“The family have asked for privacy at this difficult time.”

The police watchdog, the IOPC, has been asked to investigate.

In a statement, director David Ford, said: “This was a truly tragic incident and my thoughts are with Tamzin’s family and friends and everyone affected by the events of that evening.

“We are contacting her family to express our sympathies, explain our role, and set out how our investigation will progress. We will keep them fully updated as our investigation continues.”

Paramedics attended the motorway within minutes of the girl being hit but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

The motorway was closed in both directions while investigations took place. It was fully reopened shortly after 11am on Tuesday, Nationals Highways said.

Mohamed al Fayed’s brother Salah also abused women, say female Harrods employees

Published

1 hour ago

November 15, 2024

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Mohamed al Fayed's brother Salah also abused women, say female Harrods employees

A survivors group advocating for women allegedly assaulted by Mohamed al Fayed has said it is “grateful another abuser has been unmasked”, after allegations his brother Salah also participated in the abuse.

Justice for Harrods Survivors says it has “credible evidence” suggesting the sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated at Harrods and the billionaire’s properties “was not limited to Mr al Fayed himself”.

The group’s statement comes after three women told BBC News they were sexually assaulted by al Fayed’s brother, Salah.

One woman said she was raped by Mohamed al Fayed while working at Harrods.

Helen, who has waived her right to anonymity, said she then took a job working for his brother as an escape. She alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted while working at Salah’s home on Park Lane, London.

Two other women have told the BBC they were taken to Monaco and the South of France, where Salah sexually abused them.

The Justice for Harrod Survivors representatives said: “We are proud to support the survivors of Salah Fayed’s abuse and are committed to achieving justice for them, no matter what it takes.”

The group added it “looks forward to the others on whom we have credible evidence – whether abusers themselves or enablers facilitating that abuse – being exposed in due course”.

Salah was one of the three Fayed brothers who co-owned Harrods.

The business, which was sold to Qatar Holdings when Mohamed al Fayed retired in 2010, has said it “supports the bravery of these women in coming forward”.

A statement issued by the famous store on Thursday evening continued: “We encourage these survivors to come forward and make their claims to the Harrods scheme, where they can apply for compensation, as well as support from a counselling perspective and through an independent survivor advocate.

“We also hope that they are looking at every appropriate avenue to them in their pursuit of justice, whether that be Harrods, the police or the Fayed family and estate.”

The Justice for Harrods Survivors group previously said more than 400 people had contacted them regarding accusations about Mohamed al Fayed, who died last year.

One of those alleged to have been abused is Bianca Gascoigne, the daughter of former England player Paul.

Speaking to Sky News in October, Gascoigne said she was groomed and sexually assaulted by al Fayed when she worked at Harrods as a teenager.

UK

Wes Streeting ‘crossed the line’ by opposing assisted dying in public, says Labour peer Harriet Harman

Published

1 hour ago

November 15, 2024

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Wes Streeting 'crossed the line' by opposing assisted dying in public, says Labour peer Harriet Harman

Wes Streeting “crossed the line” by opposing assisted dying in public and the argument shouldn’t “come down to resources”, a Labour peer has said.

Speaking on Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Baroness Harriet Harman criticised the health secretary for revealing how he is going to vote on the matter when it comes before parliament later this month.

MPs are being given a free vote, meaning they can side with their conscience and not party lines, so the government is supposed to be staying neutral.

But Mr Streeting has made clear he will vote against legalising assisted dying, citing concerns end-of-life care is not good enough for people to make an informed choice, and that some could feel pressured into the decision to save the NHS money.

He has also ordered a review into the potential costs of changing the law, warning it could come at the expense of other NHS services if implemented.

Baroness Harman said Mr Streeting has “crossed the line in two ways”.

👉 Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈

“He should not have said how he was going to vote, because that breaches neutrality and sends a signal,” she said.

“And secondly… he’s said the problem is that it will cost money to bring in an assisted dying measure, and therefore he will have to cut other services.

“But paradoxically, he also said it would be a slippery slope because people will be forced to bring about their own death in order to save the NHS money. Well, it can’t be doing both things.

“It can’t be both costing the NHS money and saving the NHS money.”

Baroness Harman said the argument “should not come down to resources” as it is a “huge moral issue” affecting “only a tiny number of people”.

She added that people should not mistake Mr Streeting for being “a kind of proxy for Keir Starmer”.

“The government is genuinely neutral and all of those backbenchers, they can vote whichever way they want,” she added.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously expressed support for assisted dying, but it is not clear how he intends to vote on the issue or if he will make his decision public ahead of time.

The cabinet has varying views on the topic, with the likes of Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood siding with Mr Streeting in her opposition but Energy Secretary Ed Miliband being for it.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is being championed by Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater, who wants to give people with six months left to live the choice to end their lives.

Under her proposals, two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and a High Court judge must give their approval.

The bill will also include punishments of up to 14 years in prison for those who break the law, including coercing someone into ending their own life.

MPs will debate and vote on the legislation on 29 November, in what will be the first Commons vote on assisted dying since 2015, when the proposal was defeated.