Former drug addict died after taking heroin because it was 'too good to waste' (From Stroud News and Journal)

Former drug addict died after taking heroin because it was 'too good to waste'

11:00am Friday 8th March 2013 in News By SNJ Reporter

A FORMER heroin addict died after getting hold of some of the drug and telling a cousin it was 'too good to waste,' an inquest heard on Thursday.

James Garraway, 27, of Albert Road, Brimscombe had been clean of drugs for a long time and his resistance would have been much lower than when he was a regular user.

Deputy Gloucestershire coroner David Doolley recorded a verdict of accidental death on Mr Garraway.

He was told that Mr Garraway was seen by his cousin as he prepared to inject himself and she was shocked because he had been clean for so long.

She told the inquest in Gloucester that he said he did not want to waste it. He was later found collapsed on the floor of his bedroom.

He lived with his grandmother in Albert Road, Brimscombe, Stroud and paramedics pronounced him dead there just after midnight on November 11 last year after extensive efforts to revive him.

His cousin Cory Symonds told the hearing before Gloucestershire Deputy Coroner David Dooley that she had looked into his bedroom, and saw him with two cups, one containing water and the other a brown liquid.

"I thought it was drugs," she said, "and he said it was too good to waste.

"I went out, and when I got back my nan told me he had collapsed. I carried out CPR with instructions from the ambulance service on the phone, before the paramedics arrived and took over."

Police Sergeant Ben D'Arcy was called to the house and found a small hypodermic needle in the bedroom, together with a strap which could have been used as a tourniquet.

"It seemed as though he had taken a large dose of heroin after being clean for some time and died from an overdose," he said.

Mr Garraway's GP, David Kempson, said he had admitted using heroin, crack cocaine and alcohol in 2007.

"He was seen by staff from the county substance misuse service and then in 2011, he was given a mental health assessment after deliberate self-harm," he said.

"In 2012 he went in for a detox but failed to keep up his medication routine afterwards."

However, later in 2012, he said, Mr Garraway was quite positive about his future.

This was confirmed by Beverley Polson of the substance misuse team but she told of repeated help and relapses.

By October 2010, he did not believe he needed any further help she said, but he had visited the needle exchange service in 2011.

A post mortem could find no disease or trauma that might have caused his death.

But forensic toxicology tests carried out by scientist Kerry Taylor found he had drunk a fairly high level of alcohol before his death, and that he had probably also taken heroin.