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News (Media Awareness Project) - New Zealand: Couple Claim Son's Drug Death Came Through
Title:New Zealand: Couple Claim Son's Drug Death Came Through
Published On:2000-06-13
Source:New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)
Fetched On:2008-09-03 19:51:35
COUPLE CLAIM SON'S DRUG DEATH CAME THROUGH IGNORANCE

HAMILTON - The parents of a Hamilton man who died taking the
controlled drug methadone have blamed ignorance of the drug and the
lack of professional help for his death.

Twenty-one-year-old Marcus Binzegger died in March after he and a
friend injected themselves with the drug.

In the Hamilton District Court yesterday that friend, 21-year-old
student William James Rutherford, of Hamilton, was convicted of using
the drug and of cultivating cannabis. He had pleaded guilty to the
charges.

Judge Geoffrey Rea ordered Rutherford to undergo supervision for an
assessment of his drug use but he did not impose a fine, stating that
the death of his friend, who remained unnamed during the proceedings,
had been punishment enough.

But the parents of Mr Binzegger, Urs and Rosina, said New Zealand's
permissive drug culture, ignorance of how dangerous methadone was, and
the "ambulance at the bottom of the cliff" health system had combined
to take their son's life.

Mr Binzegger sen, who emigrated to New Zealand from Switzerland 25
years ago, said he noticed mood changes in his son late last year and
suspected he was taking drugs, marijuana in particular.

After attempts to confront his son about the problem failed, he sought
help from health professionals at Health Waikato.

"You know what they told us? They told us he had an anger management
problem," he said.

"We tried to help him but they just told us we were being control
freaks, that we had to let him lead his own life. And now he's dead."

Marcus Binzegger and Rutherford injected themselves with methadone on
March 10 after they obtained the Class B drug from an authorised user,
and bought needles from Hamilton's Needle Exchange clinic.

The pair returned to Rutherford's home where they twice injected
themselves with the drug. Mr Binzegger died some time that night after
falling asleep.

Methadone is a synthetic drug used to treat people addicted to opiates
such as morphine or heroin.

Vicki Crarer of Specialty Services Mental Health, the organisation
that administers the methadone programme in the Waikato and Coromandel
regions, said people did not realise how dangerous the drug was for
those who did not have an opiate addiction and hence no resistance to
methadone.

She said there were 195 people in the region on the Government-funded
methadone programme, and thousands around the country, most of whom
took the drug in a controlled environment.

But some addicts are allowed to take the drug at home and that is how
police suspect Mr Binzegger and Rutherford were able to buy it.
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