A coroner has warned the quality and strength of synthetic cannabis is "an unknown gamble which can have fatal consequences" after an Auckland mother of five was found face down, dead on her bedroom floor after using the illicit drug.
On November 15, 2018, the body of Esther Tumema Lemalama, known as Tumema Esther Faamanatu, was found by her husband at their West Auckland home after he returned from work around 5.30pm.
Emergency services were called but she was pronounced dead shortly after 6.15pm.
In her findings, released this morning, Coroner Erin Woolley said Lemalama died of positional asphyxia due to synthetic cannabinoid (AMB-FUBINACA) intoxication.
Woolley also noted obesity could have been a contributing factor in the death.
Lemalama didn't work due to having mental health issues, but her 23-year-old daughter Tumema Telea had taken her shopping the day before she died and said she was in a happy mood at the time.
However, later that evening Telea said her mum called her to talk about owing her husband Tutolu Iona, whom she'd been in a relationship with for eight years, money. Telea thought they may have had an argument about money.
But the next morning Lemalama and Iona had coffee together as usual before he headed to work.
Hours later when he returned, Iona found Lemalama in the bedroom with the door closed, lying on the ground. She was cold to touch.
Iona saw a little bag on the bed with what he thought was synthetic drugs inside. He did not know she had the drugs.
However, the coroners report found she had a history of using illicit drugs.
She'd previously tried to commit suicide, admitting her feelings of happiness after using drugs didn't last long and made her suicidal.
But Iona said he and his wife had stopped smoking synthetic drugs - which they had done together about once a week - about eight months before her death as they agreed it was bad and changed them.
Telea, however, was aware that her mum would purchase drugs when she was at home bored, stressed or had problems in her relationship.
In her recommendations, Coroner Woolley warned that there were dangers to consuming synthetic drugs.
"It is promoted and sold as a form of synthetic cannabis, but that there is no cannabis in the product," she said.
"The synthetic drug can be made to look like cannabis by using dried plant or other material, but it is saturated in a synthetic drug not THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the active ingredient in cannabis."
She also noted that the pharmaceutical agents which the drugs were developed for were attempts to create new medications for spasms and epilepsy, but they were found to be unsuitable and were discarded.
"The nature of the synthetic drug is unknown to the purchaser and unknown or poorly understood by the manufacturers/distributors in New Zealand," Woolley said.
"The synthetic drugs, AMB-FUBINACA and 5F-ADB, have been the cause or contributing factor in a number of deaths in both the Waikato/BOP, elsewhere in New Zealand and overseas.
"The quality and strength of AMB-FUBINACA and 5F-ADB is an unknown gamble which can have fatal consequences."
Woolley repeated recommendations made by another coroner in a separate case, saying to prevent further deaths from synthetic cannabinoids there needs to be an all-encompassing harm reduction approach, rather than increasing enforcement.
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