Sophie Russell: Mother says party drug ketamine destroyed her daughter’s life

Richard Marsden
Daily Mail
Sophie Russell wanted to stop taking the class B drug but found it difficult because it was ‘very easy’ to buy using smartphone apps.
Sophie Russell wanted to stop taking the class B drug but found it difficult because it was ‘very easy’ to buy using smartphone apps. Credit: PerthNow

A mother has warned about the easy availability of party drug ketamine after it ‘destroyed’ her daughter’s life before her tragic death at 20.

Tracy Marelli said Sophie Russell wanted to stop taking the class B drug but found it difficult because it was ‘very easy’ to buy using smartphone apps.

Miss Russell began using ketamine, which is also used as an animal tranquilliser, while out partying with friends aged 18.

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She later used it to help her cope with the death of her grandmother, and was taking it every day in her bedroom on her own.

Ms Marelli, 48, said: “We live in a council estate and she said ketamine was everywhere.

“I remember her saying there were apps to get it.”

“She told me that she knew she was going to die from this.”

The civil servant said she ‘begged’ drug and alcohol services and doctors in Lincoln, where the family live, to help her daughter, who was placed in a seven-day detox – but the treatment “wasn’t enough”.

On the morning of September 26, Miss Russell was found unresponsive at her father’s house.

A cause of death is yet to be determined and an inquest yet to be opened.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust was contacted for comment. Lincolnshire Coroner’s Court confirmed the case is under investigation.

Originally published on Daily Mail

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