Legal internet drug killed Cradley Heath father-of-one
A father died after overdosing on a morphine-like drug he bought over the internet to help with his sleeping – prompting a senior coroner to call on the Home Office to investigate the online purchase of substances.
Jason Nock, aged 41, was found unresponsive by his partner Lea Maninang when she woke up at their home in Cradley Heath.
He was rushed to Russells Hall Hospital, but was later pronounced dead on August 17 last year. Tests later showed he had almost five times the fatal dose of the legal morphine-like drug AH 7921 in his body. He had purchased the synthetic substance freely over the internet.
Mr Nock, who worked as a computer technician at Carl Zeiss in Perry Barr, left behind his partner of seven years and their one-year-old baby Jemima.
At an inquest at Dudley Coroner's Court yesterday, Black Country senior coroner Robin Balmain described Mr Nock's death as 'tragic'.
He said: "Mr Nock has been taking a drug that's not illegal. It's apparently readily available on the internet, but he has taken a lot of it."
After concluding Mr Nock's death as an accident, Mr Balmain said he will write to the Home Office over the case.
He said: "Even though it's a big problem I think it's necessary that people like me do draw to the attention of the Home Office what the problems are, to see if anything can be done."
Miss Maninang, aged 43 and a nurse at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, moved in with Mr Nock at his home in High Haden Road in 2012. The couple's baby was just six months old when Mr Nock died.
She told the hearing: "He ordered it from the internet and they delivered it.
"He was saying it helped with his sleeping."
Pathologist Dr Sixto Batitang told the hearing Mr Nock had died from an overdose of the drug, which recorded 4.46 milligrams per litre of blood in his body. The fatal level of the drug typically ranges between 0.81 and 0.99 milligrams.
Mr Batitang said: "In this case the level was way up on the normal fatal levels – almost five times." He said the drug was similar to morphine. It can cost £36 for 14 pills.
The hearing heard how Mr Nock had suffered depression and had been admitted to hospital for a drug overdose a month before he died.
