Health officials in Thailand are screening the Amy Winehouse documentary as a cautionary tale

The alcohol-induced death of musician Amy Winehouse is being used by health authorities in Thailand to teach young people about the perils of drugs and alcohol, The Associated Press reports.

A documentary about her life, Amy, released earlier this year, was recently screened for 100 young men serving time at a juvenile detention facility outside Bangkok for serious crimes including drug offenses and murder.

“I think Amy’s story is a real story that reflects real problems in the society, especially among teenagers. When Amy felt too much pressured, she acted out and started drinking, but she was gifted and she found that gift. It’s not too late for the students to find their gifts and learn from her mistakes,” said Kamron Chudecha, a spokesperson for the Stop Drink Network, told the AP.

Winehouse died in 2011 at her London home, at the age of 27, from alcohol poisoning. She was in the process of recovery from alcoholism, her father later said, and had not taken any drugs in three years.

“This happened and this has happened before,” Mitch Winehouse, the singer’s father, told CBS D.C. two years after her death. “But over five weeks she hadn’t drunk. This was proof that she was moving towards abstinence. These things happens, but she drank an enormous amount of alcohol when she did drink. And this time unfortunately, there was nobody there to take her to the hospital when she passed out. Security were there, but they thought she was asleep, and this dreadful accident happened. It was alcohol poisoning.”

Mitch Winehouse has taken issue with the documentary’s portrayal of his daughter’s life, and has said that it paints an unfair picture of his family as having failed to prevent his daughter’s death by getting her treatment for her addictions earlier.

 
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