A MIDDLE-AGED man was found dead in his Southampton flat after taking fatal amounts of a so-called “legal high” named Blow that aggravated his underlying heart condition.

Philip Nugent’s body was discovered on his bathroom floor by police, who forced their way into his Portswood flat after carers were unable to contact him.

The 59-year-old is the latest victim off the controversial legal highs, which have claimed the lives of three other men over the past year, most recently 18-year-old Adam Hunt who died last month.

His death led to police issuing an urgent warning about the dangers of taking the potentially fatal alpha-methyltryptamine (AMT) which killed the teenager from Millbrook and other so-called “party drugs”.

Southampton Coroners Court heard how Mr Nugent, who had a history of alcoholism and mental illness, was last seen by carers from the Society of St James the day before his body was found on February 14.

When they returned to his flat in Lawn Road the next day and could not get in contact with him, they called in police who found him dead on the bathroom floor.

A search of the house found small clear bags containing methiopromanine, which contained one to two teaspoons of white powder and a label which stated that the substance was “harmful”.

Officers later searched for the substance on the Internet which confirmed it was a legal high with a street name of Blow.

A report from his doctor, John Gallagher, said that Mr Nugent suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and “on occasion would claim he was a later day Christ”.

Pathologist Dr Shepherd carried out the post-mortem which revealed that Mr Nugent suffered from a form of heart disease called hypertension.

Toxicology reports showed that there was 27.7mg per litre of blood of methiopromanine.

The hearing was told although toxicity levels regarding this type of substance have not been established, evidence from previous cases suggests that blood concentrations exceeding 5mg per litre “would be likely to prove fatal, even if supportive hospital treatment was in place”.

Dr Shepherd concluded that “it would therefore not be unreasonable to assume that 27.7mg per litre would have contributed to this fatality.”

Ruling a verdict of death due to non-dependent drug use, deputy coroner Gordon Denson said: “The cause of death was due to methiopromanine toxicity and hypertensive heart disease.

“In effect he had heart disease and this was exacerbated by him taking this legal high.”