Online drugs sales: Coroner seeks answers after woman's death
- Published
A coroner has criticised online drug companies after the death of Gemma Macdonald
A coroner has demanded answers over the death of a woman who died after taking hundreds of pills she bought online.
Gemma Macdonald, 22, from Stowmarket, Suffolk, died of a mixed-drug overdose after buying painkillers from two companies.
She died on 22 July, just three days after her last pill order.
Suffolk coroner Jacqueline Devonish has written to a regulator and two drug companies questioning whether tighter checks were needed for online sales.
Ms Macdonald died after taking a mix of prescription medication and pills bought online.
At an inquest earlier this month, Ms Devonish concluded that Ms Macdonald had suffered mental health difficulties and died following a "massive" overdose of medication.
But she added: "It was clear from the evidence that she did not intend the overdose to be fatal but rather it was more likely she had been responding to voices, the balance of her mind being disturbed."
Due to a previous overdose in 2011, Ms Macdonald had been limited to weekly prescriptions by her GP to manage depression, anxiety and problems sleeping, the inquest was told.
However, despite her history of mental illness and previous overdose, she was able to buy more than 700 pills in total on two dates in July, from two different healthcare websites, the inquest heard.
Ms Devonish raised concerns about the lack of rigorous checks and the availability of large amounts of medication online in a report to prevent future deaths, external.
She questioned whether companies had any system to check on the welfare of potential customers, and if there was a way to monitor and limit the size and frequency of a customer's orders.
Current guidance from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) advises supermarkets and other retailers to sell no more than two packs of 16 tablets containing paracetamol, ibuprofen and aspirin to a customer at any one time.
Ms Devonish sent her report to the MHRA and the two online healthcare companies.
MHRA has been contacted for comment but has yet to respond.
The BBC has been unable to contact the two healthcare companies.