The desperation in Sandra's face was haunting. She sat in her kitchen as she told the story of her beloved son, Sam. He was the boy who won sporting trophies for his achievements and was idolised by his younger brother and sister.

Then, at the age of 14, he got in with a gang and changed. He started stealing things, selling his Christmas presents and having mood swings.

When Sandra found bits of tin foil ripped off the roll in the kitchen drawer and empty pen shafts in his bedroom she knew the terrifying answer to her question. Her son was on drugs. Sam refused to listen to his parents or to discuss his drug-taking with them. The situation escalated. At 15, he looked ill and his behaviour became unacceptable. He came and went from the house at all hours. His brother and sister - and his parents - became frightened of his unpredictability.

"He looked awful. He talked like a moron and created an atmosphere in the house. We tried everything to help him but he didn't want to know," Sandra remembers. And then the crunch came. Sam was excluded from school. Sandra discovered he'd been trying to sell LSD to pupils in the playground of an Oxfordshire school.

She took desperate measures. She spoke to his friends - the ones who used to know the amiable Sam - and some of the one he was mixing with.

She discovered the 'den' they had built on wasteland and found evidence of drug-taking in it. It was enough to spark her into action. Sandra had enough. Sam's habit had affected the whole family. Her health was in tatters, her marriage under pressure and her other children withdrawn and unhappy.

So she did what she thought was the best thing she could for her son. She shopped him to the police.

Sandra showed them the den, told them about his habit and Sam was arrested and charged with possession and intent to supply. It was, says Sandra, the best thing she could have done for him.

Today Sam is clean. He's 21 now and has a steady job, a girlfriend and a good relationship with his family. His younger brother and sister, frightened and informed by what happened to their brother, steer away from drugs.

"If anyone offers them drugs, they know what to do. They walk away and tell us.

"I went to the school about Sam several times. I asked them, when he was 14, to separate him from the other boys in his class who were leading him on but nothing happened.

"All the drug awareness programmes and channels between schools and parents weren't in place when Sam went through his crisis. These days it's different," she says. Starting today, the Health Education Authority and Boots are launching a Drugs and Alcohol Awareness Month. A new parents' guide will be available at Boots counters nationwide, which gives practical information and tips on how to talk to children about drugs and alcohol.

Although Sandra's family has a happy outcome and they did everything they could, at the time, for Sam, Sandra is left wondering if they handled the situation properly. "With hindsight, I can see that we shouldn't have waited until there was a problem to talk openly about drugs. My younger children learned about the dangers of drugs through watching their brother.

"I think it is important for parents to tackle difficult subjects like drug-taking with their children at an early age."

Story date: Monday 01 November

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.