The father of an 18-year-old boy who died after taking nine ecstasy tablets has said that the price of ecstasy was halved by drug dealers after his son's death.
Dundalk Coroner's Court heard yesterday that Gavin Duffy, from Cedarwood Park, had one of the highest ever recorded levels of ecstasy in his blood. It was five times more than the medical "fatal" level.
His mother cried as the coroner said the State Laboratory was going to check its figures because the reading was so high. He said the amount of MDMA or ecstasy in his blood was "absolutely enormous".
Gavin took the tablets at a small party in his father's house when his father had gone out for the evening to a pub. "It was the first time in six months that I had gone to the pub, and if I hadn't he wouldn't have taken them," said Mr Peter Duffy yesterday.
Mr Duffy called an ambulance at 4 a.m. on April 11th last year when he found his son lying on his bed with his arms and legs "going all over the place".
Louth county coroner Mr Ronan Maguire said the normal prescribed levels of MDMA would be between 0.1 and 0.35 microgrammes. The fatal level is 1.8. The level found in Gavin's blood was between five and nine times the fatal amount. "He died from MDMA toxicity. I spoke to the State Laboratory about it and they were thinking of checking the level because it was so high; it is one of the highest ever encountered," the coroner said.
"The message must go out that ecstasy can kill people. It is used as a recreational drug, but it seems to me that just one tablet can kill. I don't think Gavin intended to kill himself and the verdict is misadventure."
Afterwards Gavin's parents warned young people against the dangers of ecstasy. "Tell them not to buy or take the tablets. It is a waste of a life. He had a baby son, Keelan. He is one now and all he will have of his dad are pictures," said his mother, Marie.
She said he had been full of life, was fit and looked after himself. "If I ran into whoever gave him those tablets, I would kill them."
Mr Duffy said local drug dealers in Dundalk had cut the price of tablets from €10 to €5 just two weeks after Gavin's death and he believes it was to sell more because people had been frightened by what happened to Gavin.