A SALISBURY man died after taking a quantity of illicit drugs, an inquest has heard.

Anthony Edward Howard Cox, formerly of Bishopdown Road, died on February 27 in a flat at Dennis House, Endless Street.

Assistant coroner Dr Ian Singleton ruled the death was a drug overdose.

Acquaintance Timothy Au Yong told Salisbury Coroners Court on Wednesday that Mr Cox, 35, had asked to stay in his flat after his partner, Alana Richards, kicked him out when she found needles and suspected he had started using drugs again.

The inquest heard the former labourer received some unexpected cash on the day of his death and went out. At 3.30pm he went into the bathroom and when he came out he was described as being “out of it” and the other occupants of the flat believed he had taken something.

He began to fall asleep and snore. He was left for a number of hours to sleep it off.

Mr Au Yong said: “He carried on snoring, each time we would nudge him he would make a ‘get off me’ sort of noise.”

He added: “I was not unduly worried, he was snoring and responded every time we shook him.”

Mr Au Yong said he and Stephen Jefferies, who had also been in the flat at the time, had been “actively keeping an eye” on Mr Cox.

At about 9.30pm they noticed the snoring had stopped and checked for a pulse. They tried to resuscitate Mr Cox and were doing CPR until ambulance crews arrived and he was pronounced dead.

Assistant Coroner Dr Ian Singleton said: “Ant had been a drug user for a number of years, mainly of heroin and also occasionally cocaine and cannabis. Over a period of several months from June 2014 Ant began a programme to slowly reduce his use of drugs in a view to being drug free by Christmas 2014. There were occasions when Ant lapsed and tested positive.

"He was warned of the risks that it ran if he continued to use illicit drugs. In the past Ant had an adverse reaction to taking crack cocaine and heroin and said to be comatose for some six hours.”

He added: “The post-mortem revealed there were levels of illicit drugs in Ant’s system, including heroin and cocaine, which on the balance of probabilities would have had a depressant effect on the central nervous system leading to respiratory arrest.”

Dr Singleton said: “Anthony Edward Howard Cox voluntarily took a quantity of illicit drugs combined with prescribed medication following a period where his use of such drugs had been reduced. On the balance of probabilities his tolerance with such a combination had been reduced, which caused the injuries that led to his death.”