DRUG SCANDAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17573, 25 June 1925, Page 8

DRUG SCANDAL.

MAN WHO DIED FROM HEROIN. STRONG COMMENT BY CORONER. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, June 25. As a sequel to the death of Thomas BiltclifFe on April 8 in the Waitemata Hotel, his companion, Edward Barker, twentyone, appeared in the I’olice Court, charged with manslaughter. The medical evidence was that death was caused by an overdose of a narcotic drug, accelerated by heart disease. In a statement to the police, accused denied injecting the drug into deceased. He said he obtained the drugs found in his possession from different chemists in Auckland on a prescription obtained in New South Wales in January. In 1922 he was committed to Rotoroa Island for taking drugs. He escaped later, only to be returned to complete his term. On his release he and Biltcliffe had frequently used drugs togethed. BiltclifFe asked him for the drug, and he gave it to him. When he found Biltcliffe was cold and appeared to be dead, he informed the police. Mr Poynton, S.M., acting as Coroner, returned a verdict of death from an overdose of heroin taken to induce sleep, and committed accused for trial. The Coroner commented on the fact that accused, a boy of twenty-one and a drug addict, could go into a chemist’s shop in Auckland, produce a prescription issued months before and a thousand miles away, and purchase drugs sufficient to kill four men. The prescription bore the stamps of several Auckland chemists. The matter should be reported to the Commissioner of Police.