(Barbados Nation) Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris is concerned about the number of young men killing themselves – mainly because of involvement in drug-related activities. She explained that the young men did not necessarily commit suicide because of drug taking but the pressures from, in some cases, being hounded by drug pushers for payment or being caught up in smuggling or trafficking.
The coroner heard 51 inquests last year, nine of which were suicides and six were young men, who took their lives between 2004 and 2008. In the case of the six suicides investigated by the court in 2009, five were young men ranging in ages from 18 to 28 years, with one 40 years old.
Marshall-Harris said that increasingly over the last few years there was the drug-related element attached to the suicides in the youths.
