A fatal line of MDMA

Monday 08 April 2019

Just one line of high percentage MDMA was fatal to a 52-year-old man, Guernsey's Court has heard, as an inquest concluded an accidental cause of death.

Mark Duquemin died at his home address on Sunday 3 March this year, just a short while after snorting the line of drugs off of a plate.

Since his death, the States' Analyst and a coroner confirmed the MDMA had a particularly high percentage of toxicity "in comparison to that typically seen in recreational use". It was a strong enough to be "consistent with fatal toxicity". 

Mr Duquemin had just returned to the island, was picked up from the airport and had something to eat before going out drinking at the Grandes Rocques Bistro. Afterwards he continued to the Rockmount where he also had several alcoholic drinks. 

Mr Duquemin left the pub at closing time and returned to his flat nearby. It was there that he snorted the line of MDMA. Sometime after 04:00, around 20 minutes after he had gone to bed, he began to breathe "weirdly" and "making strange sounds". His partner tried to wake him up but couldn't get a response so she called the emergency services and started giving him CPR. 

Guernsey Police officers arrived and initially took over CPR, but Mr Duquemin was pronounced dead at 05:55.

When the drugs Mr Duquemin had taken were examined, they were found to have that exceptionally high percentage of MDMA - more than is usually expected in street forms of the drug.

While the man did have high blood pressure, his death was found to have been from unnatural causes because of the drugs in his system. The post mortem examination did however reveal that he had had a dissecting aorta, which does usually occur in patients with high blood pressure. 

The court confirmed that Mr Duquemin's death was accidental, and was caused by a) the dissecting aorta, due to b) acute hypertension, due to c) MDMA toxicity. 

The court released Mr Duquemin's body and offered its sympathies to his family and friends.