Susan Gale hit the headlines this week as she revealed she made the heartbreaking decision to turn her son Oliver Perver-Gale into the police after he became involved with hard drugs. Ms Gale, 57, of Lindfield, near Haywards Heath, believes she made the right decision as a responsible parent.

Carol Nolan, of Hove, knows all about the suffering drugs can bring to a family. Her daughter, Sam, died in January 2008 of a heroin overdose at the age of 22 after a battle with addiction. Here Carol argues that Ms Gale was right to turn her son in, even if it means her relationship with him will never be the same again. I don't think that Ms Gale has betrayed her son in any way.

By ringing the police she is trying to pull him out of whatever he is involved in.

It would be more of a betrayal if she was to sit back and do nothing. To ignore it is worse.

At the end of the day parents will do anything to try to save their child. I wouldn't change what I did to try and help my daughter, Sam. I did everything I could. I couldn't even work because it affected my health.

I spent thousands of pounds on rehab and even took her out of the country to get her away from drugs.

In my case it didn't work. You can tie the horse to the well but you can't make it drink.

On the other hand, just locking someone up won't stop them getting involved with drugs because you have to change that person’s psychology.

There has to be a change in them.

His life was very privileged, his mum had a reputable job and they were very middle class. Maybe it is harder for them to cope in a way because they thought that they were exempt from being infected by drugs. But that's not the case any more.

There are a lot of Class A drugs around and it's very hard for people not to get involved. This is just the time that we live in. Each period in history has something: alcohol, cannabis, then ecstasy and now cocaine and heroin.

I don't think that anybody acknowledges the problem with drugs unless it has affected them. Only when it does do you take the blinkers off and then you can see the drug problem everywhere.

People are oblivious to drugs but because of Sam I had to get involved in that life and I met a lot of addicts. I would have had blinkers on too if it hadn't have happened to me.

Parents can't be solely blamed for their children getting involved in drugs. Often people who haven't got children involved in drugs find it is easy to judge and hard to understand.

Ms Gale's son is 22. Why she decided to ring the police, I don't know.

I would sooner see my child in prison than be involved in drugs. In a lot of ways, maybe Ms Gale has intervened before the worst happened.

There is some help out there for people involved in drugs and their families, but not enough. I think that she should join some groups to help her and her family through this.

I feel for her because she doesn't want her son to go down the wrong route. She has done what she has done out of love and not out of malice.

He may be angry and resentful now, but if it helps him get out of the drug scene then he will thank her.

Hopefully he will see that she was only trying to save him.