A RECOVERING heroin addict who had been abstinent for a number of years is likely to have died due to the cumulative effect of taking his prescribed medication, a coroner has found. 

Alan George Ure, 58, was found dead at his home on Fell View, Milton, Brampton at around 9.10am on May 26 by a taxi driver who regularly picked him up to take him shopping. 

The driver called 999, and his death was diagnosed by paramedics at 9.36am. 

Police searched the property, finding medical notes and various packets of medication, including methadone, a heroin substitute that Mr Ure was prescribed. 

A statement submitted to Cockermouth Coroner’s Court by Mr Ure's brother, Phillip, said that their mother had died when Alan was four years old, ‘which was a factor in his future troubles’.

Mr Ure’s brother said their father had ‘remarried quickly’, they moved house regularly, and later ‘Alan tried a regular job but never really settled’.

He said: “As soon as he was old enough, he moved to London and became a heroin addict.

“This led to all his future health and general lifestyle problems.

“In recent years he moved first to Kendal, then to Brampton, and managed to stay clean of hard drugs with the help of methadone and counselling.”

A statement from a lead practitioner at Recovery Steps Cumbria said that Mr Ure had engaged with the service, having reported abstinence from heroin use ‘for some time’, and was ‘stable on an opiate substitute prescription’.

It said: ”In the months leading up to his death, he was engaging well”.

He reported being diagnosed with chronic pulmonary obstructive disorder (COPD) in early March 2023.

A postmortem report showed that all drugs within Mr Ure’s system at the time of his death were found to be within therapeutic ranges, but that venous thrombosis was found in both of his lungs.

Assistant Coroner for Cumbria, Ms Margaret Taylor, said that anti-psychotic drugs can increase the risk of this, and probably led to an adverse effect on his respiratory system, causing his death.

She said: “He had a number of trials throughout his life, but did seem to be accepting the help where it was offered.

“He wasn’t someone that was non-compliant, or deliberately abusing drugs.

“It had all caught up with him eventually.”