A BEREAVED Carlisle man died from the combined sedative effects of two drugs – including one which is not licensed for use in the UK, a court heard.

At an inquest in Cockermouth, a coroner heard evidence about the death of 53-year-old Gary Lee Smith, who died in a house in South Street, Carlisle, while visiting a friend. Tests carried out after his death showed the presence of two drugs at “high levels”.

The hearing was told that Mr Smith, who in the past had been given counselling after the sudden death of his girlfriend, had not consumed any alcohol on the day he died.

But the friend who was with him that day did confirm that he saw Mr Smith taking a number of tablets ­— which were not identified ­— before going to bed at 10.30pm on the night of January 15.

In recent years, the court heard, Mr Smith had suffered from chronic pain after sustaining serious injuries in a road traffic accident; and he also had a history of substance misuse, which included a previous heroin addiction.

On the morning of January 16, the friend whose home in South Street, Carlisle, he was visiting, found Mr Smith “unresponsive”.

The emergency services were immediately called and paramedics pronounced Mr Smith dead at 10.04am on January 16.

Robert Cohen, the assistant coroner who presided over the hearing, said that the tablets which Mr Smith’s friend saw him taking the evening before he was found dead were likely to have been the drugs identified in his system after his death.

Toxicology tests showed that Mr Smith, whose usual home address was Sunnymeade, Carlisle, had a number of drugs in his system.

They included a breakdown product of cocaine, Pregabalin, methadone and Etizolam,which is used exclusively in Japan though in Europe it is used for research purposes only, said Mr Cohen.

“It is not intended for human consumption,” he added.

Ruling that Mr Smith’s death was linked to his drug use on January 15, Mr Cohen said that medical analysis showed that the cocaine breakdown product found in his system was present in no more than “trace amounts”.

However, the toxicology results suggested that the tragedy had resulted from the “combined sedative effects” of Pregabalin and another drug in his body.

It was more than likely that he had died on January 15, said the coroner.

The hearing lasted less than an hour. Spelling out his formal conclusion, Mr Cohen added: “This was a drug-related death.”