Luke Blackhurst died after taking dangerous cocktail of drugs

Luke Blackhurst, who was living in Sillwood Street, Brighton, had not been seen for a couple of days after he had been out with friends.

The opening of an inquest in to his death heard it was not unusual for the young man to take different drugs, including ketamine and morphine.

He was found dead in his home after a night out.

The postmortem showed vomit in his airways.

It also detected ketamine which, if abused, can make the user drowsy and vomit, and die from choking, the court heard.

His mother, Rebecca, told the court she had not heard from her son for about two days, which was unusual.

Caretakers of Fred Emery Court, where Mr Blackhurst lived, were called to check his studio.

They found the young man dead with a half-eaten plate of noodles next to him on January 22 this year.

The inquest heard Mr Blackhurst’s last activity on his laptop was searching the internet for the side-effects of eating out-of-date noodles.

His mother said she suspected the off noodles may have killed him.

But pathologist Dr Catherine Guy, attending the inquest, said there were no signs of poisoning.

Miss Blackhurst said she knew her son took drugs when he was out with friends.

But she found it hard to understand why the drugs suddenly killed him that day and not before.

Dr Guy said although the level of drugs detected in Mr Blackhurst’s body were not high, the combination of certain drugs can be enough to kill.

She said: “The drowsiness from the ketamine mixed with the vomiting is lethal.

“It just takes the two to happen together that can lead to choking and to death.”

Miss Blackhurst said her son had money stolen from his flat a week before his death and was concerned of a third party involvement.

But Detective Sergeant Pinder told the court: “I am confident there is no evidence to suggest that there were other people involved in his death.

“But I remain open-minded and there are a couple of other enquiries we need to do.”

He told the court Mr Blackhurst may have also consumed GHB, a psychoactive drug, which he described as “highly dangerous”.

Coroner for Brighton and Hove Veronica Hamilton-Deeley requested a test for the drug.

She adjourned the inquest for further enquiries.

The inquest heard the provisional cause of death was the cocktail of drugs which led to vomiting then choking.

But Ms Hamilton-Deeley said further enquiries will be carried out to address some of Miss Blackhurst’s concerns and Mr Pinder’s suspicions.

She said: “We have always had a very high number of people who die because they are unlucky enough to abuse drugs, and there are some very nasty drugs out there.

“It can also just be a certain cocktail of drugs that can be so dangerous.” The inquest will take place on July 10 at 10.30am.