Kealan Burke receiving treatment in hospital after taking methadone.
The PSNI is backing calls for a detox centre to be set up in Derry.
Speaking at a public meeting specially organised by the Derry Policing and Community Partnership to look at the extent of the drugs problem in the city, Inspector Alan Hutton said such a facility would help in the battle against drugs use.
Among the speakers at the meeting held in St Columb’s House in the Waterside were mothers who lost sons to drug abuse.
They included Colette Quigley, whose son Andrew took his own life in January this year after losing a battle against drug and alcohol abuse.
Following his death, his family began a campaign to have a detox in the city.
She said that since Andrew’s death she had been contacted by many people whose children were also addicted to drugs.
The late Andrew Quigley.
She added it was vital a detox centre or a 24-hour support facility were put in place to address the problem in the city.
Theresa Burke told how her son 21-year-old Kealan died over a year after being left in a vegetative state after accidentally overdosing on the heroin substitute, methadone.
Karen Vandersypen, Letterkenny, recalled the events which led to her son Jimmy’s death.
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