METHADONE RECOMMENDATIONS MADE

If Kevin Mortimer, 33, hadn't been loaded with prescription medication he
may not have died, according to provincial toxicologist Stuart Huckin.

Huckin testified during the last day of a three-day coroner's inquest into
the circumstances surrounding Mortimer's death while in RCMP lock-up July
6, 2002.

Following the inquest, jurors recommended no methadone patient should be
given an extra pill prior to a daily dose, regardless of the hours of
operation of the pharmacy.

Huckin acknowledged the 100 milligrams of cocaine Mortimer had likely
injected several hours prior to his death was not enough to kill him.

By all accounts, Mortimer had died from an overdose of prescribed opiates,
he said.

Mortimer had started on a methadone program to ease his heroin addiction
just days before his death .

Initially, Mortimer had been started on a prescription of 45 milligrams of
methadone daily, but had his prescription increased to 65 mg.

When involved in a methadone program, a patient is given a single pill each
day by a pharmacist and is required to take the pill immediately.

When Mortimer went to have his prescription filled on a Saturday he was
given an extra pill, his Sunday dose, as the pharmacy would not be open.

Instead of waiting until Sunday, however, Mortimer took an extra 25 mg of
methadone on Saturday. Mixing that extra dose with oxycodone, a drug
prescribed to Mortimer for pain and also an opiate, is likely what killed
him, Huckin said.

Injecting cocaine, which is a stimulant, on top of methadone and oxycodone,
which are depressants, may have led observers to believe Mortimer was fine.

"At some point in the day he's going to appear normal," Huckin said, adding
the two drugs would at some point "balance off."

Opiates slow breathing, he said, and in all likelihood Mortimer died in his
sleep as a result of a lack of oxygen to the brain or heart.

Other recommendations delivered by the jury include a mandatory completed
urine analysis for methadone users upon check-in at an emergency room
before they are released to the streets or jail.

Jurors also recommended funding for halfway or safe houses for methadone
clients as well as funding for methadone related programs.