The mother of a Tayside man whose life has been ruined by solvent abuse has slammed a controversial Dundee store over the sale of lighter gas.
Barbara Lindsay’s son became addicted to “buzzing” tins of butane gas after she helped wean him off heroin.
The Brechin mum could only watch as her 29-year-old son went off the rails as he struggled to overcome his addiction.
Barbara has been left dismayed by her son’s actions and admits that both she and her family have been put through hell as a result.
The distressed mum has successfully campaigned in her home town for stores to stop selling the gas and has now turned her attention to Dundee, in particular a shop on the city’s Strathmartine Road.
Dundee Cannabis Collective has operated as an advisory service selling legal drug paraphernalia and large tins of lighter gas for the past nine months.
The store is operated by cannabis campaigner Nik Brown, who attempts to promote the benefits of medicinal cannabis.
Nik insists he wants to educate people how cannabis can be used to treat medical conditions, but some have cast suspicion on the store.
Barbara has a dim view of Nik’s shop and believes all stores who sell lighter gas must realise the carnage it can cause.
She said: “I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.
“Don’t they realise that it kills people?
“I had the help of a police sergeant in Brechin and we went round a lot of shops and told them not to sell the gas to my son.
“A lot of shops in the town don’t sell it any more.
“I don’t think this problem is going to go away.
“This is a very serious matter and I don’t think people realise that it can kill people.
“It shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”
Stephen Ream, director of substance abuse charity Re-Solv, echoed Barbara’s views.
He said: “We do agree that more should be done to prevent shops knowingly selling products like butane cigarette lighter refills to vulnerable people suffering with an addiction.
“Responsible retailers will have a strict policy in place restricting sales to over-18s only and to people who they are certain are not abusing the product.”
Nik however insists that he has witnessed first hand the effects of substance abuse and claims that the prohibition of drugs is causing more problems than it is solving.
He said: “Liam, who I work with in here, used to be addicted to buzzing lighter gas and had huge problems with it when we were going through high school.
“So I’ve seen the effects it can have first-hand.
“It is difficult because people are adults and have a choice.
“But at the end of the day, if we are ever going to change people’s usage and habits then we have to change the way people think about drugs.
“Part of that, in my opinion, has to be about legalisation.”