We are brought together again under this tree and by this rock because of what we have in common and to remember those who have died.

Drug use and mental illness need not cut us off from one another as effectively as death does but the associated ignorance, fear and prejudice often does. We may have journeyed here alone today but together under the beauty and embrace of this tree we find comfort, understanding and knowledge which is often absent in our wider community.

This gathering is important because it helps to bring together a community where there has been so much isolation, shame and despair. We know that an addiction to illicit drugs like any other addiction is a mental dysfunction; that the stresses associated with illicit drug use often bring on other mental illnesses, that many have taken the drugs as self medication and that sometimes the illicit drugs themselves have seemed the only friend that those with a mental illness have had.

The improving services and practices and the shortage of heroin has thankfully led to fewer deaths. We rejoice because with life there is always hope. We know, though, that even at the height of the heroin drought, deaths were still occurring and that other drugs, linked to serious mental illnesses, have been flooding in. Effects have changed but the distress of users, families and friends remains.

We still need a public focus of the worth of the many who have used illicit drugs. We remember each as a whole human being who often displayed humour and courage in the face of adversity that would have crushed most of us.

We affirm that the suffering of most if not all those for whom we mourn today should have been avoided. We may not all fully understand or agree with the path some chose but that choice should not have made them an outcast or have led to their death.

The locust tree (Robinia pseudoacacia) under which we are gathered was chosen because of its particular associations for the family of one of our members whose brother died in 1996. The tree then was bare. Its thorns stood out against the winter sky. But spring has brought new growth and white blossoms. Let its beauty and the confidence in its renewal inspire us.