FREE SALE FOR DANGEROUS DRUG

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2307, 27 November 1925, Page 7

FREE SALE FOR DANGEROUS DRUG

VETERAN WHO SLEPT A TOO-DEEP SLEEP Easy Relief from Old War Wounds CORONER WILL REPORT TO AUTHORITIES [Per Prosa Association.] AUCKLAND Last Night. The necessity for regulating the sale of veronal tablets was referred to to-day by Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M., Coroner, at an inquest concerning the death of John Marjoribanks Steext, aged oS, who died on November 14, uom an overdose of drug. Harriet Steele, widow of deceased, said her husband had been practlcalij an invalid lor some months, ne served through the South African War in which he suffered severe injuries For many years he had been addicted to drugs and lately he had been very careless in taking veronal for insomnia. On Thursday, November 12, he retired to bed, remarking that he expected to sleep soundly. On the Friday he did not wake and witness communicated with a doctor After making several efforts to rouss deceased, she decided to let him sleep. She became alarmed on Saturday morning when she found him still in a torpor and acting on the advice of a doctor, in reply to another telephone message, she had deceased removed to the hospital at about 3 a.m. She had occasionally taken drugs from his pockets and on this Saturday she found a bottle containing a few veronal tablets. Dr. F. E. Webster said deceased died two hours after admission to hospital. He had been treated about three weeks before for an overdose of veronal. The coroner: Where do these drugs come from? Witness: I understand they can be bought from any chemist. The coroner:/ Then we had better get that stopped. It is a very dangerous drug to be taken without a doctor’s supervision. Dr. W. H. Pettit said he had attended deceased for the last six months for excessive drug-taking. He knew of no restriction on the sale of veronal tablets, but considered some control was essential. There would have been little hope of saving de ceased’s life, unless he could have been treated within two hours of taking the overdose. The coroner; I think I will write to the authorities and draw attention > the handling of this narcotic. A verdict was returned that death was due to an overdose of veronal, accidentally taken.