A powerful and well-attended evening aimed at raising awareness of the growing drugs crisis in Ballymena was held at the Braid Centre Ballymena on Friday 8th November 2024. The evening was organised by the Ballymena Neighbourhood Policing Team and attended by leaders from across the community. The audience heard moving, at times gut-wrenching, first-hand stories from three very different victims of the scourge of drug addiction, alcohol and substance abuse, and the effects these can have on individuals, close family and communities.
First to speak was the father of a 23 year-old man, Jamie Burns, who died just four days after taking a pill at a party. His father, William Burns, gave an emotional and graphic account of the trauma a parent faces at the drugs-related death of their child. At one point he held up a plastic bag with his son’s ashes in for all to see. After his son’s death on Saturday 19th November 2016 William started the campaign #1PILLWILLKILL which he takes around schools and youth groups.
Then there was “A”, whose husband had died in 2023 after years of addiction on the back of childhood trauma inflicted as a child growing up in a home where his alcoholic father, when drunk, abused his mother. “A” had to endure her husband’s and son’s addiction over a 19-year period, along with all the associated conflicts, habitual lying and impact on her own mental and physical health. Thankfully “A” has found support from groups such as Women’s Aid (https://www.womensaid.org.uk/womens-aid-directory/ ) and Daisy Start 360 (https://start360.org/how-can-we-help-you/daisy).
Finally, there was “B”, who introduced herself as a cocaine addict, who started down the road to addiction at the age of 11 with alcohol, which then became at the age of 19 drug addiction, and a journey began of switching between drugs, tablets, opiates and alcohol. As a result she experienced the loss of her children to social services on several occasions. “Addiction robbed them of their connection with their mum,” she said. Happily she is in recovery, thanks to the support of groups such as Cocaine Anonymous (https://www.cocaineanonymous.org.uk/ ) and the Carson Project (176 Queens Street, Ballymena, 07874 041681. See also their Facebook Page). In an emotional talk, “B” said “I was using external fixes to try and deal with internal problems”. But to every addict she held out hope of a way out: “There is a solution. You can recover.”
Around 80 people attended, including leaders of 24 local churches, outreach workers, and leaders of community groups working with addicts and vulnerable people in the community.
The Ballymena Neighbourhood Policing Team had, with the help of Without Walls Ballymena, invited local churches, parachurch ministries, and other organisations and groups in the town as they aim to take on the rapidly growing drugs culture and the adverse effects that drugs can have on individuals and in the community.
The aim of the event was to bring awareness, the knowledge and understanding of the increasingly out-of-control drug problem in Ballymena and the way in which help and support can be provided to those in need.
A spokesperson for the Ballymena Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “We are looking for this event to open lines of communication and develop knowledge of what we do and how we, the PSNI and you who are at the coalface in the town, can work together. Our goal with this event is for the PSNI to collect information from those churches and other organisations to help us put together a consummate ‘Signposting Booklet’ which will contain contact details of the various churches, para-church, town organisations and groups along with the services you provide. The PSNI aim to distribute the “Signposting Booklet” and share the information contained throughout the community and areas of need.”