"IF, BY telling my story, I can stop even just one person turning to drugs or get someone already taking them to stop, then the hell I have been through has not been in vain."

That's the message from a young mother from Basingstoke who has spoken exclusively to The Gazette about her battle with drugs in an attempt to raise awareness of what she claims is a problem rooted in modern society.

Rosy Clarke, who has a three-year-old son, began taking drugs when she was about 18. She spoke about her experiences at a recent specially-organised talk on the devastating effects of the Colombian drugs trade, which took place at Carnival Hall in Basingstoke.

The talk was held on the back of The Gazette's hard-hitting "Cocaine town" article, which put the spotlight on the cocaine problem in Basingstoke.

The 25-year-old said she was disappointed with the low public turnout at the talk and felt she needed to speak out through The Gazette to try to reach young people and their parents.

Rosy got into drugs when she started college but things escalated when she met the father of her son.

"When I went to college, smoking a bit of cannabis just happened," she explained. "I got into the whole student thing of drinking and smoking."

Rosy got married when she was 18 but, due to a variety of problems, including drinking too much alcohol, that soon ended.

After that relationship folded, she met another man - her son's father - and that's when she started dabbling with what she calls the "harder stuff".

"I did speed pretty much constantly - as soon as you come down you need more," she said.

"My coke cocaine use was intermittent - it was more of a dabbling drug. But that was purely because of the price. People do refer to speed as the poor man's coke."

Rosy describes her experience with drugs like a bad love affair.

"You love the feeling when you are up', but hate it when you come down and you try to be up' as much as you can."

She said that drugs are easily available in Basingstoke, like any other town, and likened it to getting a taxi on a Friday night.

"You might get one straight away or maybe have to wait a little while and that's what it's like with drugs."

Rosy, who used a variety of drugs including cocaine, speed, ecstasy and cannabis, began the battle to turn her life around four years ago when she found out she was pregnant.

"I knew I had to stop straight away because I was already five or six weeks gone," she said. "I was incredibly lucky to conceive in spite of the drugs and because I was anorexic at the time. I knew I just had to stop but I know that it can be very hard for people who don't have a real reason to give up."

Rosy left the Basingstoke area for three-and-a-half months soon after her son was born to begin the process of rebuilding her life. She has since returned to the area, completely free of drugs, and is relishing the challenges of motherhood.

"I have made my mistakes but I have learned from them, and I want other people to do that too."

Rosy is now enjoying life with her son, and volunteers at a local primary school. She said her only lasting problem as a result of her addiction is psychological problems, such as paranoia.

Rosy said: "The modern culture of getting a quick fix or a quick buzz has got a lot to do with the problems with drugs these days. People need to wake up and understand the realities of drugs and the devastation they cause."

  • Do you have a view on the drugs situation in Basingstoke? Write to The Letters Editor, Gazette Newspapers, Gazette House, Pelton Road, Basingstoke, RG21 6YD, fax 01256 337425 or e-mail editor@basingstoke gazette.co.uk