TRAGEDY has struck a Newport family for the third time in three years.

Drug abuse killed teenager Mark Anthony Glasgow just two days after his release from a custodial sentence, police said yesterday.

Mr Glasgow, 17, from Duffryn, was found dead from an overdose of a mixture of drugs in a house in Baldwin Street, Pill, on Sunday, October 20.

It was a third blow for the family still reeling from two previous tragic deaths.

In January, Mr Glasgow found his mother, Linda Makris, dead on her bed in Duffryn.

She died from a cocktail of drugs and had been depressed since the death of her son, Christian, 22, three years ago, an inquest heard.

Christian hanged himself with a shoelace at Maindee police station on February 12, 1999, after being arrested on suspicion of robbery. He died the next day in his mother's arms . Police said there are no suspicious circumstances and the coroner has released the body for burial on Friday.

Garry Brown, councillor for Tredegar Park, said: "It's another tragedy for the community of Duffryn. They all go back years on this estate and they will be missed.

"Drugs are affecting everybody. The dealers are murdering our children."

A message placed in the Argus by Mark Glasgow's grieving relatives said: "Beloved son of the late Linda, loved brother of Lee, Louis and the late Christian, fondly remembered by his aunties, uncles and cousins."

Mark Glasgow's funeral service is due to be held at St Stephen's Church at 3pm, followed by cremation at Gwent Crematorium.

The inquest into the death of Mrs Makris, held at Tredegar in September this year, heard that the 44-year-old divorcee died on January 20, 2002, after taking a cocktail of cannabis, alcohol, methadone and prescription drugs for depression.

But the inquest concluded Mrs Makris had not intended to kill herself, and a verdict of misadventure was recorded.

Mrs Makris, who had four children, was found dead in bed by son Mark, who then lived with her and her partner, Mark Ball, in Kestrel Way, Duffryn.

Mr Glasgow told the hearing in a statement that the day before his mother's death she and Mr Ball had been drinking cider and brandy and smoking cannabis in the kitchen.

The next morning he went into his mother's bedroom and saw her lying face down in bed and she would not wake up.

A post-mortem examination showed Mrs Makris had twice the legal alcohol limit for driving in her blood. There were also levels of diazepam, cannabis and methadone.