'Get out of my body': Cries of car welder, 30, after taking 'Dr Death' drug that killed him and a friend, 21, within 30 minutes of each other



Chris Goodwin and Emma Johnson took super-strength ecstasy drug PMA



Car welder told friends he had lost his sight while his friend fell off a sofa



Drug has claimed at least 10 lives in the north-west so far this year

It is often sold as ecstasy but is up to five times stronger - both are illegal



Coroner: 'I can't imagine the pain of losing a child and I am so sorry'

Two friends died within half an hour of one another after taking a super-strength ecstasy drug nicknamed 'Dr Death'.

Car welder Chris Goodwin, 30, said he could not see and cried 'get out of my body' before he and Emma Johnson, 21, collapsed and died following a night out in Bolton, Greater Manchester.

An inquest heard the pair took up to five times the lethal dose of Para-Methoxyamphetamine (PMA) - almost certainly without realising what it was.

Cocktail: An inquest heard Chris Goodwin, 30, and Emma Johnson, 21, drank heavily and took other drugs, including the former legal high mephedrone - but it was the super-strength ecstasy PMA which proved fatal



The pair had taken a crystal form of the drug PMA, nicknamed Dr Death, similar to the one pictured above. It also comes in the form of pink tablets. The drug has reportedly claimed the lives of a number of young clubbers

Pathologist Dr David Bisset said: 'I suspect people buy this drug when they are looking for something else. It can lead to high blood pressure, hallucinations, coma, seizures and there is no specific treatment.

'These things come with no quality control or testing whatsoever. One of the dangers is that it is slow in effect so people tend to think nothing much has happened so they take another.'



Three of the pair's friends were also taken to hospital for side effects of a mixture of drink and drugs.

The inquest heard Mr Goodwin, a car welder, and Ms Johnson, a finance worker, met friends for a night out in Bolton on April 28 this year for a friend moving to the Cypriot resort of Aya Napa

They had gone out separately but met in a club where they drank alcohol and took drugs, including mephedrone and cocaine. They then headed to a friend’s house in the early hours.



The pair and another friend ran out of drugs so they went to Chris’ home, where he said he had ‘whizz’, a term used to describe amphetamine.

The drug was in fact a pale crystal-like form of PMA, which is also known to come in the form of pink tablets nicknamed 'pink ecstasy'.

They also took the former legal high mephedrone, nicknamed 'bubble', which was initially blamed for the pair's death. However, the inquest ruled out mephedrone as the fatal drug.

Stacey Feathers, who was on the night out, told the inquest: 'We were in the club and Emma and her friend bought some coke and shared it in the toilets.

Dangerous: The drug has been linked to at least 10 deaths in the Manchester area, including those of Chris Goodwin, left, and Emma Johnson, right. Experts say it is often sold as ecstasy and without revellers noticing



The house in Bolton, Greater Manchester, where Goodwin and Johnson took lethal doses of the Dr Death drug. Friends said 30-year-old Goodwin complained he was hot and was cooling himself with a fan

Family photo: Emma Johnson with her mother Ann, who is pictured above right leaving the inquest at Bolton Coroner's Court. Coroner Jennifer Leeming told her: 'I can’t imagine the pain of losing a child and I am so sorry'



'We went back to our friend’s house at about 3am where she and Emma finished off the coke and the rest of the bubble. Chris had some too. Our friend went to bed and the rest of us stayed until about 6am.



'We then decided to get some more drugs. Chris said he had some whizz at his house, so me, him, Emma and another friend went there.

'We all took some amphetamine in a cigarette paper and swallowed it. Chris had two to start with when everybody else had one. We all felt quite spaced out. It didn’t feel the same as when I had taken it once before.



DEADLY DRUG FOR JUST £3

PMA has been blamed for the deaths of more than 10 young people within a 60-mile radius of Manchester this year. It is better-known in the form of pills costing as little as £3. They are sometimes pink and shaped like Love Hearts sweets, or stamped with an 'M'. It also comes in a crystal-like form, pictured above. The drug often has the same street names as ecstasy as it has a similar effect to ecstasy's main chemical, MDMA. But the active ingredient in PMA is five times stronger and takes longer to kick in, meaning many revellers take extra pills.

The youngest known victim was 16-year-old Ellie Jones, who died after suffering breathing difficulties at a friend’s house in Warrington. Nine recent deaths in the north-west have been linked to possible contaminated ecstasy.

PMA has also been linked to deaths in Canada, Norway and Denmark.

Gym instructor Travis Barber, from Salford, was just 19 when he suffered a violent fatal reaction to PMA. His mother, Dr Louise Barber, said after an inquest: ‘I would say [to young people] just don’t do it and please avoid all drugs. 'It’s like playing Russian Roulette with your life.'

'We all felt really hot so Chris went and brought a fan down from upstairs. About two hours later Emma and I had another smaller one and Chris had a larger one.”



Michael Bowland, who had organised the night out, said he went downstairs at 10am the next day and saw Ms Johnson 'flicking her legs and making weird noises and rolling off the sofa'.

'I told him [Goodwin] to get them an ambulance,' he told the inquest. 'I said she was a mess.



'She just looked high and more gone than the others but Chris was bog-eyed too and said he was high.



'A couple of hours later I heard noises coming from Chris’s room - it was all fidgeting and groaning, so I just thought someone was having sex so I didn’t want to go in. After a while I heard a big bang.



'I went in and saw Chris on the bed and it was broken and the curtains had come down. Chris seemed more like Emma was earlier. I started asking him if he was alright.



'He was talking normal one second then speaking gibberish the next. I didn’t think the worst because I had seen him take drugs before and he had done mad things.



'Then he started saying "get out of my body" and at this point I asked if he needed an ambulance but he said he was alright.



'He was saying he wanted to get it out of his system. I phoned a friend for advice. We didn’t phone the ambulance straight away because you don’t want to get your friend in trouble.

'He started drinking some orange juice so I thought he was recovering.'



A friend picked up Ms Johnson at 11am, when she was still suffering the effects of the drug. Soon afterwards she collapsed and stopped breathing.

She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead at 1.30pm.

Police arrived at Chris's home at 2pm, but he died in the living room despite paramedics' efforts.

Coroner Jennifer Leeming recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Car welder Chris Goodwin told friends he wanted the drug out of his body before collapsing in his living room

She told the families of both victims: 'Nothing that happened here was in any way intentional - but the fact is they, and other young people, are taking risks with their lives.



'There is a culture of it out there and I would say just don’t do it and don’t let others do it. Please learn from this and help others learn from this.

'I can’t imagine the pain of losing a child and I am so sorry.'

Greater Manchester Police said they were waiting for phone records to trace the drug's origin, which could be used in a possible criminal case.



Det Insp Chris Walker told the inquest: 'These deaths were extremely tragic. Young people need to be educated about the dangers of taking drugs and as they don’t understand what they are taking.



'It’s part of the culture now. People have got to know the perils of taking drugs they don’t know about.'