Pubdate: Thu, 16 Dec 2004
Source: Barrie Examiner (CN ON)
Copyright: 2004, Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2317
Author: Tracy McLaughlin
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

INMATE'S DEATH AN ACCIDENT, SAYS JURY

MIDLAND - Joseph Balog never knew the cocaine he was snorting was silently 
destroying his heart, keeping him teetering on the brink of death.

That is the tragedy a coroner's jury tried to address yesterday when it 
recommended the provincial government create programs for school children 
to teach them the deadly drug can cause a user to suddenly drop dead of 
heart failure.

The recommendation follows a three-day inquest exploring the death of 
Balog, a 20-year-old inmate at the Central North Correctional Centre in 
Penetanguishene, referred to as the superjail.

The jury found that Balog died accidentally from cardiac arrest due to 
toxic levels of cocaine in his system Sept. 29, 2003.

Experts testified Balog's heart, liver and spleen were so swollen and 
filled with scar tissue from constant cocaine abuse that he was bound to 
die, although he was unaware of his condition.

"His cocaine abuse had so beat up his heart that his death was going to 
happen no matter what," said Crown attorney Davie Russell, counsel for the 
coroner.

During the inquest, Russell traced Balog's last two days before the man 
collapsed in convulsions in his cell at the superjail.

"His death was the result of a bad decision to choose cocaine to deal with 
difficulties in his life in what he probably perceived as a pretty negative 
world. For him, cocaine was the easy way. But, once he was addicted, it 
became his only way."

In a tearful plea to the jury, Balog's mother asked them to recommend 
programs to kids while they are young, before it's too late.

"Tough love sometimes doesn't work," said Kinga Balog.

Earlier this week, the jury heard of the mother's frantic attempts to save 
her son from his addiction to cocaine and codeine-based prescription drugs.

She begged him to go into treatment. She went to the police to ask what 
could be done.

And, finally, the day before he died, in one last desperate attempt at 
tough love, she moved out of her Barrie house and told her son he could not 
move with her unless he first signed himself into a detox centre.

In a frenzied state, her son called her from the emptied house and told her 
he shot himself.

She called 911.

Barrie police surrounded the house and eventually talked Balog into 
surrendering.

It turned out his suicide threat was just a ploy to get his mother's 
attention, but police did find two firearms, ammunition, cocaine and 
hundreds of pills of every colour in his room.

His mother described the surge of relief she felt when she learned police 
would take him to Royal Victoria Hospital after arresting him under the 
Mental Health Act.

"I thought he was finally going to get the help that he needed," she said.

But, after a 15-minute assessment by a doctor at the hospital, he was 
released to police, who took him back into custody and charged him with 
drug and weapons offences.

Balog spent his last night on a concrete slab at the Barrie police station. 
The next day, after he was transported to the superjail, he collapsed in 
convulsions and was pronounced dead of cardiac arrest at Huronia District 
Hospital in Midland.

No one knows for sure when he took his last hit of cocaine or codeine, but 
it could have been before he was arrested, the inquest heard.

Inmates who were chained to Balog during the trip to the superjail said he 
was sweating and "coming down" off prescription drugs and he wanted more.

In his report on the cause of death, pathologist Russell Price noted 
Balog's heart was enlarged. He said Balog would not have known about his 
condition.

"If young people were more aware of the damage that cocaine causes, do you 
think they would use it a lot less?" one juror asked the doctor.

"I would hope that would be the case," he answered. "Cocaine's capacity to 
cause death is relatively misunderstood, even by medical doctors - let 
alone young people."

"Education is the key."
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager