“Moment of madness”: rare drug implicated in student death
Lewis Greig
The arrest of two St Andrews students for allegedly supplying drugs and the tragic death of another in what is suspected to be a fatal reaction to a psychedelic has pointed to a culture at odds with St Andrews’ public image.
On Friday 12 April, Nicholas Friend, 19, and Stewart Wright, 22, appeared at Cupar Sheriff Court charged with being concerned with the supply of illegal drugs. The pair made no plea and were released on bail.
Friend and Wright’s appearance in court came one day before relatives switched off the life support of Lewis Greig, 21, who is believed to have died as a result of a fatal reaction to the drug DOC. Greig had been on life support for three days before his family turned off the machine.
In an email sent to all students and staff, Professor Louise Richardson, St Andrews’ Principal, explained that Greig had been taken ill after submitting his final year dissertation. “He was attended by paramedics and taken to hospital in Dundee but never recovered,” she wrote.
Although the toxicology report is still awaited, Greig’s mother has spoken publicly about her son’s death, telling reporters that he suffered a fatal reaction to the drug DOC.
In an interview with The Citizen she added that Greig had planned to study positive psychology “because it didn’t involve the use of drugs, and that’s why this was a moment of madness.”
Classified as a psychedelic drug, DOC is similar to LSD and its effects of increased awareness, euphoria, and heightened senses can last up to two days.
In February 2013, a student at Houston State University was hospitalised after taking the drug but survived.
Greig was revived by paramedics but after three days on life support at Ninewells hospital his family made the decision to switch off his life support on the morning of Saturday 13 April.
In her email on Monday 15 April, Professor Richardson described Lewis as a “gregarious, compassionate, tolerant, open-minded and affectionate young man.” She added: “I know that news of Lewis’s tragic death has come as a great shock to our community, to all who knew him and to residents of Agnes Blackadder Hall, where he lived.
“A bright student who came to St Andrews from Balwearie High School in Kirkcaldy, Lewis had hoped to continue to postgraduate study in Psychology. Away from his studies, he was a keep-fit enthusiast, enjoyed weight training and running, and had been a regular user of our Sports Centre.
“Lewis came from a very close family, who had dinner together only last Sunday. He is survived by his parents Alan and Jackie and a younger sister Hollie, who is a student at Edinburgh University.”
Rachael Millar, a classmate of Greig’s, told The Saint that his attitude towards life was always a breath of fresh air. She said: “It is still too strange to believe that he’s not with us anymore.
“Every time that somebody walks in late for class, I turn around expecting it to be him because it always was. I would say ‘rest in peace’, but ‘rest’ has never been a word that I would associate with you since you were always having too much fun for that.
“His Psychology classmates of 2013 will always remember him, his contagious smile, and will keep a place for him in our hearts.”
4:49 am
One might rightly call me (over-)sensitive but this article seems a little premature. Full of implication, allegation and belief, this article elucidates nothing that other papers have not already exposed. The article seems to exploit the uncertain circumstances of a tragic student death for the purposes of asking wider (and, for the moment, relatively insignificant) questions about the university’s culture and public image, in addition to naming-and-shaming individuals. The death itself comes across as a mere by-product of these questions. With no funeral yet held, or even arranged, and the emotional wounds of friends and family still slowly healing, one wonders if you had really (and I mean really) given due thought to the student’s friends and family, the latter being conspicuously quoted (second or third-hand) in your headline, either (to speculate myself) for its neat alliteration, or due to a slight lack of consideration
Without wanting to (re-)open debate on the purposes of the student journalism (cf. ‘student convicted for possessing cannabis’), it would seem that the postponement of this story would have not only shown good judgment – in a period that has sadly seen more than one death – but it also would have provided you with more facts with which to write a more incisive and timely article about St Andrews’ public image.
As someone who knew Lewis personally and with his death not even passed into the realms of memory, but still very much in the front of my mind, the purpose of my ‘comment’ is not to decry The Saint, but to urge discretion for future editions.
1:42 pm
James, perfect
2:12 pm
I am in full agreement with James. Essentially what you have done in this piece, is to minimize someone’s life- not just someone- a fellow student. You have turned a very horrible event into gossip and I’m frightened to think that a group of students were comfortable with publishing this piece. There is much more to a life than making an example and drawing wild assumptions. This incident is incredibly fresh and most of us still expect to see Lewis turning the corner around the street. All I can hope is that you treat future events with the same amount of compassion and respect you would want for yourself.
3:55 pm
While this is a very tragic death, and indeed, very recent, I think it would be wrong to criticise The Saint for reporting on an incident that involved a rare but very dangerous drug, which is the crux of the story. The article refers directly to the Principal’s email and a touching tribute from a classmate so I do not believe it is fair to say it is an insensitive piece. Essentially, The Saint has an obligation to its readers to inform them of a rare drug that is potentially circulating St Andrews.
4:49 pm
No it does not. There is an unwritten rule in student journalism that you do not write about student deaths PARTICULARLY not so soon after they’ve occurred. I know Jonathan is trying to be ‘professional’ but this is crass. The unwritten rule is there precisely because of the reasons outlined James and Avalon’s posts. This is a very small community and reporting a student death can be painful and interpreted as insensitive. I think we are owed a direct reply from The Saint’s editors on this.
6:12 pm
The aims/crux of this story can be disputed as much as you want. What cannot be disputed is that the article has caused offence – you only have to look as far as these comments, and The Saint’s facebook page to realise that. Since the article was meant to raise awareness of this dangerous drug but has immediately caused offence means that it was either written too soon and/or that its aims were poorly articulated. I think it would be wrong to dispute my criticism of the article, because I speak for a substantial number of people who also felt it was insensitive.
11:10 pm
I couldn’t agree with you both more, James and Avalon. I’ve politely voiced my opinion over on the Facebook page, but I don’t want to go too far into exactly how offensive I found this article because I don’t want my final memories of Lewis to be tarnished by arguing over the indiscretion of others.
Though I must add: if this article were indeed aimed at highlighting the dangerous drug, then that would have been the focus of the story. Instead, the drug itself is barely mentioned – the rest of the article consists of information recycled from the principal’s email and the local news report.
I also disagree with your choice to publish the names of the two students implicated in the tragic accident, even though the local news report did so. Whilst it is unarguable that Stewart and Nick did an immeasurably stupid thing, I think those of us that knew them and Lewis personally know that neither of them are bad people. What has happened alone will be enough on their conscience for a lifetime and Lewis would not have wanted anyone to suffer such consequences for what happened, I’m sure.
The Saint did not contact any of Lewis’ close friends for comment on this piece. If it was truly a ‘tribute’ (as was expressed to the student who was quoted), then it should have included memories and comments from those who are suffering from his absence at this time.
I think an apology, at least, would be the noble thing to do here.