Amy Winehouse's dad pledges to fight new film to the "bitter end" during visit to Dorset

Mitch Winehouse spoke to recovering addicts at R Hub Aftercare Service, a rehabilitation centre in Boscombe, before giving a talk at the Grange School, Christchurch, as part of a joint project by the Amy Winehouse Foundation and charity Addaction.

Speaking to the Daily Echo, Mr Winehouse highlighted the importance of arming youngsters with information about drugs to allow them to make the right decisions in life.

And he called on the government to provide more rehabilitation services for adults recovering from addiction problems, adding: “We know that we’ve lost the drugs war. We’ve got to have a different attitude towards drugs, to drug taking and not fill prisons up with people taking drugs. Lock up the pushers.”

He said 70 per cent of crime is drugs related and that prison costs £50,000 a year for an adult and £130,000 for a young offender. 

“Wouldn’t it be cheaper to send that offender into rehab?” he said.

With regard to youngsters struggling with addiction problems, he said he has learned lessons from his own experience as a father and that giving Amy ultimatums had been the wrong way to go about things. 

He said: “For too long parents have been saying to their kids ‘don’t do this, don’t do that’ – it’s okay when they’re four or five years old – but when you’re saying to your kid when they’re 15 ‘don’t do this’ – they are going to go the other way. The important thing is to arm them with the information and let them make their choices. 

“If they know they are going to be putting poison in their bodies ultimately they’re going to make the right decision.”

“If they are flagged up by parents, teachers or by themselves as having a problem we have our clinical partner Addaction who step in and take care of the clinical side of things. 

“It’s something we can bring into schools that is desperately needed and to give young people information so they are able to make the right kind of decisions.”

He also took time to level criticism at the film documentary, titled Amy, which was released on Friday.

“The first hour of the film is wonderful because its films of Amy never seen before – and then it starts – people who weren’t there saying ‘if only the family had done more, she was left alone for the last three years of her life’ - it’s absolute rubbish,” he said.

“Her family and friends surrounded her. People don’t know she was clean of drugs for three years before she died. This film doesn’t mention that. The last six weeks of her life – five weeks and five days – she wasn’t drinking. Then she drank an enormous amount.

“She was on the road to sobriety when this accident happened. There is no mention about how hard she worked to get clear of drugs and what a struggle it was for her.”

He said omitting this information was akin to making a documentary about the Second World War “without mentioning Pearl Harbour”, adding that he may take legal action against the film’s producers and is considering the possibility of making his own documentary in response.

“Amy was my daughter and we don’t give in,” he said. “It would have been easier to jump in the hole with her. I won’t give in with this – no way. We’re going to fight this until the bitter end.”

A statement from the Amy filmmakers said: “When we were approached to make the film, we came on board with the full backing of the Winehouse family and we approached the project with total objectivity, as with Senna.

“During the production process, we conducted in the region of 100 interviews with people that knew Amy Winehouse; friends, family, former-partners and members of the music industry that worked with her. The story that the film tells is a reflection of our findings from these interviews.”

For more information about the project in Bournemouth visit addaction.org.uk.