A FORMER lorry driver found dead in his Weymouth home had high levels of drugs in his system, an inquest was told.
Royston Barringer, 42, died from pulmonary oedema and bronchial pneumonia and was found in his flat in Brownlow Street on March 3.
An inquest in Dorchester was told that PC Tom Steadman was called to the scene after Mr Barringer’s landlord Martin Ball discovered his body.
PC Steadman said: “I found a blanket lying on top of a body on the floor.
“There was drug paraphernalia in the kitchen.”
West Dorset Coroner Michael Johnston said that a pathologist report found high levels of morphines in Mr Barringer’s blood.
A toxicology report stated that Mr Barringer was a heroin user and had been prescribed morphine.
Mr Johnston said: “The morphine levels posed a risk of high toxicity even to people with a tolerance, as I believe was the case with Mr Barringer.”
He recorded the cause of death as pulmonary oedema and bronchial pneumonia with opiate toxicity and an accidental death verdict.
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