A mum whose son died after being poisoned by "ecstasy" while on holiday in Berlin is now calling for drugs to be legalised in the UK. Nadia Rees from Aberdare said a shift in drug laws would see substances regulated, meaning they would be less likely to cause harm or contribute to organised crime.
Her son, Ben Rees, died in 2015 of multiple organ failure when he took a pill which contained a lethal dose of PMA. He was just 23 years old. According to drug advice website TalkToFrank, PMA is sometimes sold as ecstasy so people take it without knowing. PMA can kill at lower doses than ecstasy and MDMA. It is particularly dangerous as it takes longer to kick in, meaning people often take more believing it hasn't worked.
Speaking of the heartbreaking circumstances which led to her son's death, the 59-year-old said: "Ben went to Berlin for a weekend after he organised a trip with his friends. They were going for three nights and then they went to a festival somewhere outside Berlin. Before that they went to a club and Ben took what he thought was ecstasy.
