Value system

Taylor had a clumsy, if well-intentioned value system when it came to drugs. She was strongly opposed to heroin use. And although Taylor started using cocaine two years before she died, after the death of her mother, she would not deal in it because it is a "hard" drug. Amphetamines, she believed, were justified because they are available on prescription.

Taylor was a contradiction. She used and sold drugs, but she was seen, by some at least, as a kind of community resource. In an age of zero-tolerance towards drugs, what she did seems inexcusable. Yet her role was complex. She understood that women living lives of poverty and abuse wanted to block out reality with the drugs she supplied, and she also attempted to provide a rudimentary rehabilitation service.

which may have prevented some youngsters from slipping into heroin use, and helped some to break the addiction.Places on drug rehabilitation programmes were relatively hard to get in the Fleetwood area, mainly due to the large number of drug users. Lancashire Drug Action Team admits that there are still difficulties for people who need these services, though waiting times have dropped over the last 12 months.

Fleetwood is an area known for its high crime, low employment and rampant drug use, especially amphetamines, although in recent years heroin and crack cocaine have begun to take over. Taylor would allow addicts to "do their rattle" (drug-takers' parlance for coming off heroin) at her home, supplying sleeping pills and methadone to ease withdrawal symptoms. Family members would find heroin addicts sleeping on the sofa, and on one occasion when the house was full, a young man sleeping in her cupboard, trying to keep away from drugs.