Man died after injecting drug

A 55-YEAR-OLD man died after horrifically injecting crushed pain killers.

Andrew Kerr collapsed at his friend Karl Jackman’s house, in Anchor Lane, Oldham, after injecting the drug, diconal, into his groin on May 11, last year.

His wife, Diane, told an Oldham inquest yesterday how he would ask his GP for the tablets and then sell them on in Scotland. He only began to take them before he passed away.

The inquest heard how Mr Kerr, of Cardigan Road, Hollinwood, took a variety of illegal drugs.

His marriage to the care assistant collapsed because of his excessive drinking and drug intake.

On the day of his death, he visited Mr Jackman, who said in a report to the coroner: “Andrew went to the kitchen. He was unsteady. There was a needle on the work top. I think he had injected himself.

“He said ‘that feels good’, and suddenly fell to the floor. He had overdosed himself.

“I called for the ambulance and he died after 5pm that day.”

A post-mortem examination revealed he died of acute alcohol with dipipanone, an opioid painkiller, and cyclizine toxicity. Dipipanone is marketed as Diconal.

Coroner Simon Nelson, who recorded a verdict of misadventure, warned of the dangers of injecting such drugs.

He said: “Do not inject this drug because its risks are horrendous. Mr Kerr was peddling these drugs in Scotland. Who knows what untold danger it has done or is doing there.”