THE story of Kristian Andersen is a modern tragedy. It is also a powerful warning to anybody who today might be tempted to try heroin.

Kristian, who killed himself by deliberately taking an overdose, left a note telling the world that he was not a junkie, but that his use of drugs messed up his life to the point where at the age of 20 he felt ashamed and could see no future for himself.

We shall never know what made this young man try heroin for the first time.

Neither can we tell what he might have achieved if he had never allowed himself to be tempted.

But his mother Jan is right to say, as she did after yesterday's inquest, that many people who try hard drugs have no idea what they might do to them and that there is a need for more and better education on the subject.

Heroin changed this decent young man and ruined his life. His infant daughter will grow up never having known her father.

Hopefully his story will give other young people cause to stop and think about the stupidity of experimenting with drugs.

If so his death will not have been a total waste.