$3.60 FOR LETHAL $100,000 DRUG HIT

A coroner yesterday questioned the conduct of a doctor and pharmacist who
prescribed a $3.60 mouthwash containing cocaine with a street value of
possibly $100,000.

The mouthwash, containing 10 per cent cocaine, later contributed to the
death of a 21-year-old woman partying at Lorne.

Reading his finding of an inquest on Jacqueline Mary Kelly, coroner Ian von
Einem, sitting in Geelong, said he accepted that the amount of cocaine in
the solution was "manifestly excessive" and that the prescribing doctor and
dispensing pharmacist had not exercised an appropriate standard of care.

Mr von Einem said the reliance of Dr Sri Srikantha on pharmacist Andrew Lau
in deciding the correct dose was "simply a case of the blind leading the
blind".

Ms Kelly, of St Albans, died on May 13 last year after suffering
convulsions at the Cumberland Resort as a result of the combined toxicity
of cocaine and alcohol in her system.

Mr von Einem said it was likely that Ms Kelly had consumed about three
grams of cocaine. He said the amount of cocaine found in her blood was "by
far the highest reading" the head pharmacologist at the Victorian Institute
of Forensic Medicine had seen in his 12 years at the institute.

Mr von Einem found it was "probable" that Ms Kelly had swigged from the
mouthwash solution after taking it from the bag of an acquaintance,
Michelle Slowik, without her knowing.

Dr Srikantha had prescribed the mouthwash, at his Kings Road, St Albans,
practice, on April 26, for Ms Slowik, a friend of Ms Kelly's sister, after
Ms Slowik suffered complications following a tonsillectomy. It was
dispensed by Mr Lau the same day.

The inquest had been told that the amount of cocaine in the mouthwash was
as high as 10 times the amount contained in similar mouthwashes used at big
Melbourne hospitals.

Mr von Einem said Ms Kelly "had previously experimented with drugs and it
is likely that was what she was doing when she drank the mouthwash".

He said he would refer the inquest documents to the Medical Practitioners
Board of Victoria to consider whether an inquiry should be held into the
conduct of Dr Srikantha, and to the Pharmacy Board of Victoria for a
possible investigation of Mr Lau's conduct.