THE mother of Martha Fernback – the teenager who died from a lethal drug overdose at an Oxford park – has visited 10 Downing Street to revitalise her campaign for drugs legalisation.

Martha, 15, a Cherwell School pupil, died on July 20, 2013, after taking MDMA powder, more commonly known as ecstasy, in Hinksey Park.

Following an inquest last year, when Oxfordshire coroner Darren Salter recorded a verdict of accidental death, Martha’s mother Anne-Marie Cockburn, from Summertown, said she wanted to meet Home Secretary Theresa May about her campaign to promote greater awareness about the dangers of drugs.

That campaigning continued yesterday as members of Anyone’s Child: Families for Safer Drug Control lobbied Prime Minister and Witney MP David Cameron.

Families from across the country affected by drugs joined Ms Cockburn to deliver a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, calling for a review of current drugs policy and laws.

Our top stories

The Anyone’s Child campaign is supported by Bristol-based charitable think tank Transform Drug Policy Foundation.

With the second anniversary of her daughter’s death approaching, Ms Cockburn said: “I think the Anyone’s Child campaign is a step in the right direction. It brings together a group of families whose lives have been wrecked by the laws that David Cameron keeps defending.

“I don’t want any other parent or families to go through what I have been through, whether it’s a child being put in prison for a small amount of cannabis, or otherwise. The debate on drugs in the Commons last year was progress of a kind – we would like to see a similar model to Portugal [where drugs were effectively decriminalised 10 years ago].”

Quoted on the Transform Drug Policy Foundation website Ms Cockburn said: “I want MPs to stand by my daughter’s grave and tell me that our drugs policy works.”

Campaigners are calling for a new way of dealing with illegal substances and are urging the Prime Minister to commission a review of drug laws.

The letter says: “We have come to the conclusion that not only do our drug laws harm and kill, but that legally regulating drugs through pharmacies and doctors, rather than street dealers, would have better protected our loved ones.”

No one from Mr Cameron’s office was available for comment but a 10 Downing Street spokesman said there was a “standard process” with letters and petitions.