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Priest’s Daughter Dies of Banned Drugs Bought Off Internet

by Gopalan on Apr 22 2009 1:23 PM

The daughter of an English priest has died of banned prescription drugs she had bought off the Internet.

Amy Pain, 22, used the computer in her bedroom to buy online medication for her insomnia and period pains. Some of those drugs are only available on prescription and one is banned in Britain.

But the inquest heard Amy accidentally overdosed and was found dead in bed by her father Rev Richard Pain, the Archdeacon of Monmouth, a town in southeast Wales

Rev Pain told the inquest: 'Amy had a stomach problem the day before and said she had not been sleeping well.

'We became concerned when we didn't hear her upstairs in her bedroom the next morning.

'I found her in bed apparently asleep - she looked very peaceful.

'But we realised something was wrong and called the emergency services.'

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Amy was an 'intelligent, creative and loving person' by her father although she was sometimes reclusive - and was happier shopping online instead of going out.

The inquest heard she had been treated for anxiety and anorexia since she was 11.

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Her father told the hearing how 'attractive and articulate' began self-medicating at the age of 18 by buying drugs through an internet mail-order company.

Rev Pain said: 'She obtained drugs from the internet to help her to sleep and used herbal remedies.

'We tried to monitor her and brought it up with health professionals who would come to visit her.

'But ordering medication off the internet is not an uncommon thing for people to do.' 

Rev Pain said his daughter did not want to leave the house at their vicarage in Monmouth, Gwent, and preferred to order her medication from the internet.

He denied that she might have tried to end her life.

A post mortem examination revealed Amy died of a drug overdose.

But the coroner refused to name any of the pharmaceutical products Amy had been taken.

He said: 'Amy stopped taking prescribed medication and thereafter self-prescribed by the internet.

'She obtained a variety of drugs, some of which are only available on prescription and others which was discontinued in the UK in 2007.

'I am concerned of the apparent ease that drugs which are normally only available by prescription can be obtained on the internet.

'There is no control of the quality or the quantity of the drugs bought via that source.

'I intend to draw the facts of this tragic death to the attention of the appropriate authority to see what action can be taken to restrict that access, especially to young and vulnerable people.' 

The inquest in Newport heard that just before her death Amy complained of stomach pains which were related to her menstrual cycle.

Mr Bowen said: 'She took pain relief and tablets to help her sleep.

'It is likely that when the drugs didn't help the pain or sleeplessness Amy took some more in the mistaken belief it would give her quicker relief.

There was no thought of ending her own life.' 

A verdict of misadventure was recorded, Luke Salkeld reported for Daily Mail.

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