Mum tells how she desperately tried to wean her ‘beautiful’ son off drugs

The grieving mother of Jack Brennan who died of an alleged accidental overdose in 2021 wants her son’s tragic story to be told to save the lives of others battling drug addiction.

Jack was just 23-years-old when he lost his life, a life he wanted to live free from the addictions his mother says he got no help to beat.

In an emotional and honest interview Lorraine spoke of the moment she found her son lying in a pool of blood – and believing he had been murdered she allowed her daughter to take pictures of what she believed was a crime scene.

The images of her son too horrific to print and Lorraine was prevented from having an open coffin at his wake.

She says she still believes her son was murdered, given a batch of drugs and used as a guinea by a heartless drug dealer who was trying out a new supply to see the sideeffects.

What is fact is that Jack died after taking a deadly and dodgy dose of Flubromazolam, a prescription drug that is reputed to be highly potent, supplied to him by a man.

“Jack didn’t want to die, he had been clean for seven and a half months, he wanted to live but he was tortured to get back on the drugs.

“He started off taking weed when he was about , then Es and cocaine which he didn’t like and then eventually he started taking heroin,” Lorraine Brennan told Sunday World.

“When I found him there was a needle in his arm hey must have stuck it in and a pan on the floor beside him but no sign of it being used.

“There was no heroin in his system which led me to believe that the person who gave him the drugs he took, or the person who found him, put them there to make it look like a heroin overdose – which it wasn’t.I believe someone is responsible for my child’s death and I know that I will never get justice for that.”

The Belfast mum-of-seven says her world ended the moment she discovered her son’s body.

“I went into his flat which was always pristine and looked around for himhen I walked round the corner and found him my life ended there and then.At the start, for one split second I though he was playing a mad joke on me because he was always the joker but hewas dead and my world and heart shattered.

“I had been sick the days before so hadn’t seen him but when I got to him rigor mortis had not even set in.

“The drugs in his system were like a poison e was in an awful state but I still wanted to see him one last time.

Lorraine tried every day to help her son sending him to Essex, Liverpool and Florida to get help. There were no rehab facilities available at home.

She was forced to try and wean her son of heroin on her own in her home in Lenadoon, her fight was tragically in vain.

“I would give him the heroin he bought reducing the dose little by little at 12 oclock at night when everyone was in bed.

“I sat up all night watching him so I could ring an ambulance if he collapsed. I was exhausted, and I know what some people might think about me doing that, but I don’t care, I had no other choice, my Jack had no help.”

Through his battle Jack attempted to take his own life, extreme self-harm and slit his own throat but still the help he desperately needed was not there.

“I took him to hospital so many times but the attitude was that he was just a junkie and that it was all down to the drugs and they would send him home.

How could it all be about the drugs? He had mental health problems, what sane person slits their wn throat?

“He tried to hang himself but thankfully his friends got there on time.

“He despised himself for being an addict, for all the pain he caused but he was a beautiful boy, he never stopped telling me how much he loved me.

“He hated what he was doing to his siblings and when he was clean he was the kindest of boys being drug addict was only a small part of him. I miss him every single minute of every day.

“I have thought about suicide, but I have my other children to think of and they are the only reason why I put one step in front of the other, why I am still here today.

“My faith has helped too t the start I was angry, I asked God why he took my son and then in time I realised the only way to heal him was to take him.”

Lorraine is raising funds in Jack’s name, a charity called Jack’s Promise, to set up a rehab and crisis centre in West Belfast to help people like her with sons and daughters addicted but wanting help.

So far she has raised £9000 but it’s nowhere near the mark she needs to make a difference.

Anyone wishing to donate can do so by going to Jack’s Facebook page Jack Brennan Forever.