A man who died after taking a “grim cocktail of drugs” didn’t mean to kill himself, a Basingstoke inquest has found.
Elias Dearden’s body was found “blue and rigid” at his Blackwater home in Hawley Road, to the east of Hartley Wintney, on February 15.
Basingstoke Law Courts heard how the combined effects of levels of mephedrone, heroine, cocaine and diazepam each high enough to be fatal had killed the 31-year-old.
Mr Dearden’s mother Leeann discovered her son after visiting to help him decorate his house, as he looked to get over a drug overdose the week before, having put any drug use “behind him for over three years” before that.
And speaking at Wednesday’s inquest, Mrs Dearden insisted that she had no idea what had triggered his relapse, while she also questioned why police hadn’t caught the people responsible for selling him the drugs.
She said: “I asked the hospital if they could keep him in after his overdose, but they didn’t.
“I have no idea what happened, there seemed no trigger at all, and he was doing so well.
“It’s such a small area and nothing seems to have been done, despite an abundance of information being available on his phone.
“I’m sure if I investigated this myself, I would’ve found something by now.”
And North East Hampshire coroner Andrew Bradley admitted that the case had left him feeling “slightly despondent”.
Recording a misadventure verdict of mixed drug overdose, Mr Bradley said: “He’s taken a grim cocktail of drugs unfortunately, and I know there’s no recompense or satisfaction that I will able to provide from this inquest.
“This is not a suicide, but an appalling set of circumstances.
“These networks of drug dealers are insidious and devious in the extreme.
“I get slightly despondent when I cover cases such as this because it is such a waste of life.”