MAN'S DEATH ATTRIBUTED TO COCAINE

The lethal amount of cocaine in a Whitehorse man's body likely killed him
as he ran from the RCMP officer trying to arrest him in late September.

Clark Edward Whitehouse had more than 10 mg of cocaine in his system,
Sharon Hanley, the Yukon's chief coroner, said this week.

Anything over 10 mg is considered lethal. Exactly how much he'd ingested
won't be made public until a yet-unscheduled coroner's inquest.

Coroner's inquests are standard practice when someone dies in police custody.

A police officer investigating an in-custody death on the South Klondike
Highway from the previous day had tried to pull Whitehouse over in a
routine traffic stop.

The man fled from him, ingesting something as he ran after he fled his
truck. The RCMP said they believed it was cocaine as they found more of the
drug at the scene.

When Whitehouse became combative, the constable stunned him with a Taser.
It wasn't until he'd walked the 34-year-old back to his police cruiser that
he noticed Whitehouse was foaming at the mouth.

The constable conducted CPR until paramedics arrived, but no one was able
to resuscitate the man.

Preliminary autopsy results showed no other reason why Whitehouse died,
said Hanley. Though she doesn't have the final results back, the toxicology
report about the lethal amount of cocaine leads her to believe that's what
killed Whitehouse, the coroner said.