Foster (24), of Woodbank Avenue, Finglas, Dublin, was discovered unresponsive in his cell at Coolock Garda station on March 7th, 2006, and was taken to Beaumont Hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was being questioned in relation to the fatal shooting of mother-of-one Donna Cleary at the time.
A postmortem by deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis found Foster died from methadone intoxication.
Foster was administered methadone on two occasions on March 6th by a doctor who prescribed the medication after Foster told him that he was a drug addict, was on a methadone treatment programme at Ballymun Clinic and was on 60mls of methadone per day.
Chairman of the methadone prescribing protocol implementation committee Prof Joe Barry told Dublin City Coroner’s Court yesterday that before a doctor prescribes methadone to a person for the first time, the doctor must make contact with the central treatment list, a list of people who are prescribed methadone by their GPs or at treatment clinics, with the individual’s details.
This ensures, he said, that there is a record of each new person being prescribed methadone and that the individual is not already receiving methadone elsewhere.
But the statutory instrument doesn’t apply to Garda stations, coroner Dr Brian Farrell noted, and any medical practitioner giving methadone for the first time to a person in Garda custody doesn’t have to notify the list and makes his or her own professional judgment on the matter.
Prof Barry agreed with solicitor for the Foster family Michael Finucane that guidelines for the administration of methadone in Garda stations were overdue.
He described methadone as “a dangerous drug in itself, if somebody takes too much they can overdose and die”, he said.
There is no record of Foster ever having been on the central treatment list.
Prof Barry said the committee has considered the fact that the administration of methadone in a Garda station is “outside the protocol” and needs to be addressed.
“There’s a difficulty with the Garda stations being outside the list ... it’s a difficult clinical decision the doctor has to make.”
He said there would be a review of the protocol over the next 12 months and that he would imagine the issue of the administration of methadone in stations will be addressed, he added.
A document from the Irish College of General Practitioners was drawn up in 2007, after Foster’s death, with regard to the administration of methadone to people in Garda custody.
Doctors who prescribe methadone in hospital or hospital consultants are not required to contact the list. There are approximately 9,000 people on methadone treatment, which is a heroin substitute, the inquest heard.
Foster was cold on arrival to Beaumont at 3am on March 7th and was likely to have been dead for some time, the inquest heard when it opened in November 2009.
“It’s becoming rapidly clear a GP prescribing methadone in a Garda station ... is flying blind ... They are ... on their own judgment all of the time,” Mr Finucane said.
Source: Georgina O'Halloran, The Irish Times, 23/02/2010
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