Drugs warning to students over 'toxic' mixing with alcohol

Jeni Larmour, from Newtownhamilton, died in October 2020, hours after arriving at her university accommodation

Students should be aware of the "toxic" dangers of mixing alcohol and other drugs, the Public Health Agency (PHA) has said.

The warning comes after an inquest found a student from County Armagh died due to misadventure after consuming a lethal combination of alcohol and ketamine.

Jeni Larmour died in October 2020, after arriving in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

The inquest also found that she had been supplied drugs by another person.

Ms Larmour's mother, Sandra, told BBC News NI this had vindicated her daughter, whom she had left at student accommodation earlier that evening.

A pathologist told the inquest that ketamine, an anaesthetic used in medicine, could cause death "pretty quickly".

'Educate young people'

Kevin Bailey, the Public Health Agency's regional lead for drugs and alcohol, said many young people will mix their consumption as "a passage of rite".

"Ultimately we have to educate people early in life around the dangers and safe usage of alcohol," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"I would love for people not to be using drugs, however, we know that's not going to be practical for some and there are many different reasons why people engage in alcohol and drug-taking behaviour."

Alliance assembly member Kate Nicholl told the programme there was a joined-up approach to dealing with drugs issues in Belfast.

She said this needed to be "scaled-up" across Northern Ireland.

The former Belfast lord mayor repeated her call for safe injecting spaces to be available "so people can be monitored" to prevent overdose deaths.

"We are trying to stop drug use, but it's not as simple as that."

Mr Bailey said dealing with alcohol and drug issues is a "complex situation" with more demand for addiction services than capacity.

This often means the threshold to access help increases, he added.

Earlier this week, Sandra Larmour welcomed the inquest finding which confirmed the drugs in her daughter's case did not belong to her.

"I knew they weren't hers, but just to have the coroner say that and to confirm what I already knew was just perfect," she said.

"A country girl who in a big city to have went out and got drugs in a very short space of time, that's just ludicrous to even think that could have happened."

Ms Larmour said her daughter, a former deputy head girl at Royal School Armagh, "didn't set out to end up dead that night and she had a fantastic life that she could have lived".

"She had so much to give in everything."