A GERMAN tourist recovering from a drug overdose is now out of danger but as yet unable to give an account of the incident at a Phuket resort that put him in intensive care and killed his companion, a doctor at Vachira Phuket Hospital said on Sunday.


ONE TOURIST is dead and another is fighting for life in hospital in an overdose tragedy that has observers asking questions about where a restricted drug was obtained.

Phuketwan understands that both the men involved were Germans and that the drug that killed one and put the other in Vachira Phuket Hospital's intensive care unit was methadone.

The tragedy occurred late yesterday at a well-known five-star resort at a west-coast beach. Police have been asked not to reveal the name of the resort.

Methadone is a restricted drug which is only available from hospitals in Thailand, as is the case in most other countries, including Germany.

Methadone, which is used to wean addicts off heroin, is usually administered at the hospitals. Phuketwan understands the two men booked into the resort on January 26 and were staying until February 9.

While deaths from heroin overdoses are quite common, fatalities involving methadone are rare. One of the issues that only the man in intensive care can answer is whether the methadone was smuggled in, or whether it was obtained on Phuket.

Contamination of the methadone or the possibility of a suicide pact are two options that will be examined by investigating officers from Chalong Police Station in southern Phuket.

Phuketwan understands that one of the tourists contacted a nurse at the resort - which is not in Karon - about 5pm yesterday. The man appeared to be severely ill and unable to speak. The nurse arranged for him to be taken to Vachira Phuket Hospital, in Phuket City, immediately.

At the hospital, a request was made for the man's insurance card. In knocking on the door of the room, resort staff found the other German tourist dead on the floor. The man's body, heavily tattooed on both arms, was naked.

Four drug vials were also found in the room, Phuketwan has been told. Only one had been opened.

Photographs of the death scene show bleeding from a puncture wound in the dead man's groin.

One used syringe was in the room, a second unused syringe was on the bed. Packs of pills labelled Novartis 2 were also found. Some appear to have been consumed.

Seven more unused drug vials were found in a motorcycle rented by the men.

Police went to the resort yesterday and again this morning, and said they would return this afternoon.

Phuketwan has been supplied with the names of the two men but is withholding publication until relatives have been notified. The dead man was aged 36, his companion is 29.