Mitch Winehouse Asks British MPs to Help Set Up Drug Foundation

Mitch Winehouse, the father of Amy Winehouse, gained support from MPs on Monday in his bid to launch the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which aims to help people struggling with addiction.

According to The Guardian, in a meeting at the House of Commons, the singer's father told MP Keith Vaz, "I want to involve myself in things that would have been important to Amy. That is why we are going to be setting up the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

"There's hundreds of thousands of young people in situations today that could be avoided, and these are our future policemen, doctors and lawyers and solicitors, that we could help. We need to be able to help our children."

His efforts come just over a week after the death of his 27-year-old daughter at her home in North London.

Vaz later said that the home affairs committee were likely to review the funding of drug treatment services.

"This new initiative enables us to revisit this issue, and I am certainly keen to hear from all those who have had difficulty in obtaining treatment," he said. "Any initiative for rehabilitation must go hand in hand with sending out the message of prevention."

At his daughter's funeral, Mitch told mourners she had "just completed three weeks of abstinence" and spoke of her recent determination to get sober, according to the BBC.

He added, "If you cannot afford a private rehabilitation clinic, there is a two-year waiting list for help."

Mitch put this point to Keith Vaz in their meeting, but now Paul Hayes, chief executive of the National Treatment Agency for substance abuse, has disputed this claim, saying "more than nine out of 10 patients wait less than three weeks for treatment in England."

The cause of Amy Winehouse's death will remain unclear until the result of toxicology tests in the coming weeks.

At the weekend, her 2006 album 'Back to Black' returned to No. 1 in the UK, and entered the Top 10 of the US chart.

Mitch Winehouse Speaks to the BBC About Rehab Funding

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