The family of a young teenager has released photographs of him in hospital after his drink was spiked with ecstasy.
Ben Lee Jones, 14, from Old Colwyn, Wales, lies in a coma in hospital after being taken ill on a night out with friends on Saturday.
Ben was unresponsive so two men carried him home, where his mother, Hayley Jones called an ambulance, reports the Daily Post North Wales.
Ben’s auntie, Abbie Lee Everett told the Daily Post North Wales:
He was out on Saturday night with a group of lads, around 24 of them from age 14 to 17. The kids got an adult to go in the shop for drink, after that he asked someone to hold his drink, and that’s all he remembers.
Two lads had to carry him home because they couldn’t wake him up and he was unresponsive. My sister [Hayley Jones] had to phone an ambulance. She was petrified, she thought he was going to do die.
It was very scary because my sister was told he might have brain damage. We just burst out crying when we seen him and he had a pipe down his throat.
At Glan Cywd Hospital, doctors induced a coma and ran blood tests, which showed than Ben had alcohol in his blood and high levels of MDMA, the chemical found in Ecstasy.
Ben is now making a full recovery at home, and has given his permission for the photographs to be released in order to warn young people about the dangers of MDMA and to be wary of spiking.
North Wales Police have now launched an investigation into the alleged spiking.
Inspector Chris Bell told the Daily Post North Wales:
To spike someone’s drink without their knowledge with something which is unwanted is very dangerous. Fortunately the boy involved made a full recovery, but it could have been a very different story.
Anyone who may have information relating to this incident is urged to contact St Asaph CID on 101, quoting reference RC17027451.
Abbie added, ‘We are so glad Ben is home and alive. We could have been organising a funeral’.
For more on the health risks of Ecstasy and MDMA, Talk To Frank.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.