A recovering cocaine addict, who was regularly given free samples of cocaine by drug dealers, committed suicide because he could no longer cope with life, an inquest has been told.
The 42-year-old man, living in support housing in Dublin for people who were previously homeless, was discovered dead by his brother on May 9th last year. He had hanged himself from the inside of his front door with a rope about two days previously, Dublin City Coroner's Court heard yesterday.
"He was trying to stop taking cocaine but he was being given free samples of it . . . He wouldn't go looking for it but people would come and give him some for free," the man's brother told the inquest.
The inquest heard that the man was also suffering from Aids, hepatitis C and was on a methadone programme. He left a suicide note for his family. "It said he can't go on any more and that he was at his lowest . . . He was after losing his fingers in previous years. Everything was going downhill for him," his brother said.
The coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, said that a "cocktail of drugs" was found in the man's system, including cocaine, methadone, anti-depressants and another drug usually mixed with cocaine. Dr Farrell recorded an open verdict and said that although it was clearly a self-inflicted death, the man's level of drug intoxication may have rendered him unable to make his own decisions.