A West Yorkshire Coroner is to write to Drugs Tsar Keith Hellawell about the scourge of crack cocaine.

Assistant Deputy Coroner James Turnbull made his comments at an Bradford inquest into the death of a 26-year-old man who died only a month after being released from prison.

The hearing was told how Robert Jones, of Queen's Road, Manningham, Bradford, was taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary from a friend's flat last September after taking a number of drugs including cocaine.

He was transferred to St Luke's Hospital but died 18 days later from acute kidney failure which was caused by the toxic effects of cocaine.

Reacting to calls for a campaign to deal with the problem, Mr Turnbull said he would be writing to the Drugs Tsar about crack cocaine and the facilities available to people who are affected by it.

"One of the purposes of an inquest is to see if, by doing investigations and getting to know what is happening on the streets, we can initiate some procedures which will reduce this dreadful scourge,'' he added.

The inquest heard that after his release from prison Mr Jones had been to a drugs counsellor to get on to a rehabilitation programme. Rosamund Walsh, a former drugs worker at the Bradford Drugs Dependency Clinic in Manningham, said that he had been in emotional pain and wanted to get away from reality. Asked if she thought the drugs problem was increasing, she told the inquest it was getting worse and that crack cocaine was now the big drug out there.

"There are so many people out there committing crime under the influence of cocaine,'' she added.

"Cocaine is a big issue. I think there should be a big campaign about it.''

Mr Turnbull said he would write to the Drugs Tsar once he had received more information from Miss Walsh about the problems surrounding crack cocaine.

Mr Jones's mother, Margaret Brown, said: "He was a lovely boy. Everyone liked him.''

A verdict of death from the non-dependent abuse of drugs was recorded. After the hearing, Mr Turnbull said: "The lady who had been caring for the deceased man gave me the impression that not enough is being done to help people on crack cocaine.

"She said she would write to me with details of her experiences in the front line of caring for people dependent on the drug and I will then write to Mr Helliwell to see what more can be done to help these people."

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