‘ Legal’ drugs scourge

THE scourge of prescription drugs in Tasmania has again been highlighted by a coroner following the accidental overdose death of a Hobart woman.

In his findings released Monday, coroner Simon Cooper said medical practitioners had breached legislation 112 times in prescribing the woman drugs such as morphine in the 10 years before her death in June, 2019.

He said the woman, who suffered chronic pain following a back injury she sustained in the 1990s, was taking a number of central nervous system depressants including morphine, codeine, doxylamine and nitrazepam.

Aged in her mid- 50s, she was found dead on her couch by a family friend and her body taken to Royal Hobart Hospital for an autopsy.

Mr Cooper said forensic pathologist Donald Ritchie could not determine an exact cause of death, but laboratory results showed the woman had taken a “significant array” of drugs that likely led to loss of consciousness and death.

The coroner said although the woman was first declared drug- dependent by a medical practitioner in 1996, she had been supplied medication, including morphine, on scores of occasions without the relevant authority.

He said a report from the state government’s Pharmaceutical Services Branch found 37 of those breaches were technical in nature and didn’t affect the woman’s safety.

However, 14 breaches were by practitioners who didn’t have authority to prescribe narcotics, while 20 breaches related to “excessive and early” supply of morphine.

Finding the woman died from mixed drug toxicity after being prescribed a large amount of medications, Mr Cooper raised concerns over how she’d been prescribed medication.

“A number of those drugs were prescribed for many years but designed only for short- term use,” he said.

“It is also quite apparent, from the evidence, that in this case there has been a significant departure from the standards required by the legislation … particularly concerning are the 20 breaches relating to excessive and early supply of morphine.”