Warning to others after Lancashire woman dies following drug use
A Lancashire woman with a long history of drug and alcohol abuse died after injecting heroin and taking other substances.
Caroline Pearson, aged 52, of Beech Street, Accrington, died in Royal Blackburn Hospital in August 2024.
Area coroner Kate Bissett, sitting at Preston Coroners Court, concluded her death was drug related.And she sounded a warning to people not to share prescription drugs with others for whom they were not intended.
The inquest heard that Ms Pearson had started taking drugs at the age of 18 and also had a history of alcohol abuse.
Her daughter Jade said her mother had a "chaotic lifestyle" and she had to end contact with her because of it.
A friend, Janet Connor, said she and Ms Pearson smoked crack cocaine at a friend's house and she also saw Ms Pearson inject heroin.
Ms Pearson asked her friend for a prescribed anti depressant, and also an anti-psychotic drug.
She went to sleep on the settee and later her friends realised she wasn't breathing and called an ambulance.
Coroner Ms Bissett said Ms Pearson was not prescribed methadone at the time of her death and therefore her resistance to heroin would have dropped.
Using other drugs would have increased the sedative effect.Ms Bissett said the case would serve as a "timely reminder" to the public not to share drugs they are prescribed with with other people