A SCHOOLGIRL was recovering today after being rushed to hospital when she drank strong cider she claimed had been laced with the drug LSD at an under 18s disco.
The 11-year-old collapsed inside the Blackburn club Northern Lights and later at home, after she told her family that an LSD tablet was sneaked into her drink by a teenage clubber. Her distraught mum Edna, 36, today called for the closure of the club and demanded to know how youngsters were able to sneak litre bottles of cider, double the strength of normal lager, into the club without being noticed.
Paramedics rushed the youngster by ambulance to the casualty department of Blackburn Royal Infirmary on Friday night. She was transferred to Queens Park Hospital in Blackburn over the weekend for surveillance while she recovered from her frightening ordeal. Northern Lights nightclub packs in over 900 youngsters at their teeny bopper discos every Friday where the bar serves only soft drinks.
The club has already been hit by problems with some of the youngsters drinking super-strength lager, cider and bottles of wine before trying to get into the club. Emma claimed that her friends bought the super-strength cider from a nearby shop in Audley, Blackburn.
Mum-of-three Edna, of Hythe Close, Blackburn said: "My daughter is lucky to be alive. It could have been like the Blackpool teenage drugs tragedy. My daughter should not have been drinking cider anyway, but the alleged drugs incident is what concerns me more.
"The club should be closed down. The disco is for 11 to 18-year-olds, but they seem to let any age in and don't seem to search them before they enter." Edna was in a state of shock when Emma made a desperate phone call to her from inside the club at 7.20pm on Friday, saying "I'm dying."
She said: "I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. Her brother brought her home. Her eyes kept rolling to the back of her head, she couldn't breath or walk and she passed out three times." Edna added: "Emma would not touch drugs and would not have drunk the drink if she had known what was in it. She goes to the disco regularly, but she won't be going again."
Inspector Wayne Howard, from Blackburn Police, said: "Inquiries are continuing. One youth has been interviewed. We are waiting for an analysis of a blood sample.
"We are not alleging that the girl took drugs, but we do want to warn others about the risk involved in taking them".
General Manager of Northern Lights in Blackburn Peter Clarke, said: "The disco caters for eight to nine hundred children at the under 18s disco on Friday.
"We have gone to all sorts of lengths to stop anyone with drinks from entering the club and, as far as drugs are concerned, although it is not yet established that the girl actually took drugs anyway, we have never had a problem with them in this club."
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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