No way of predicting cocaine deaths warn experts
January 13, 2010
A new study suggests that there is no way of knowing who might fall victim to the deadly effects of cocaine. Research carried out in Spain showed that three percent of all sudden deaths were directly attributed to the use of the drug. The study analysed post-mortem reports for those who had died suddenly in Seville between 2003 and 2006. The results were that 21 out of 668 could be related to the use of the cocaine.
Experts hope that the new findings will dispel the myth that cocaine is a relatively safe party drug. British Heart Foundation spokesperson Fotini Rozakeas said that every time a person used cocaine they put themselves at risk from life-threatening conditions such as heart attacks, strokes and death. Rozakeas also pointed out that such conditions could occur suddenly in young, healthy users who had no previous health problems.
However, the Spanish research did show that all those who had died suddenly from the use of the drug were men between the ages of 21 and 45. Most of those men were also smokers and had been drinking alcohol at the time when they took the cocaine. Dr. Joachin Lucena who was leading the research at Seville’s Institute of Legal Medicine said that the result of taking cocaine had simply proved too much for many of the victim’s hearts. The researchers also pointed out that some people appeared to need only a small dose of the drug for it to be fatal whereas other could put away astonishing amounts and feel fine.
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