THE DUBLIN city coroner again warned about deaths from cocaine abuse yesterday at an inquest on a teenager who had been so afraid he had worn a bulletproof vest for more than a week before his death.
The inquest heard he died after taking cocaine cut with more than four times the toxic level of lignocaine. Warren Sunner (19), Oriel Hall, Dublin 1, was found dead in the bedroom of his house on November 13th, 2009.
A postmortem found he died of the combined effects of cocaine, lignocaine and sedative drugs.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell told Mr Sunner’s family, who were in court, that Mr Sunner had a huge amount of lignocaine in his system. The coroner said they have had a lot of inquests of young people in recent years due to lignocaine-cut cocaine.
“There is a problem at the moment. Cocaine is cut with lignocaine and there is a high concentration of lignocaine in this cocaine. It’s a problem in the last year to 18 months or longer,” he said. He said he would have to record an open verdict because of concerns expressed by the family, but he said his own view was it was probably a misadventure.