A Milford Haven man died after consuming the ‘legal high’ drug spice, an inquest heard on Thursday.

Darren Martin Roberts,29, grew up and went to school in Milford Haven before attending the Pupil Referral Unit at the age of 13, and working on a farm when he left school.

The inquest heard that in 2014 he began smoking ‘legal highs’ and was described as being ‘chronically addicted’ to them. He later developed mental health problems, believed to be due to the amount of ‘legal highs’ he was taking.

Acting coroner’s officer, Maggie Julien told the inquest that in the weeks leading up to his death 29-year-old Mr Roberts experienced stomach pains and had collapsed in public; again this was suspected as being as a result of the use of ‘legal highs’.

On January 31 this year he was at home with his girlfriend. He had refused her offers of food, saying he wanted to sleep. He then lay on the floor, something he did when he was in pain. His girlfriend noticed that his hands were twitching, something that often happened when he took spice.

At 4pm he was still in the same position and his girlfriend could not wake him.

She rang a friend and asked her to come round, saying that Mr Roberts was sleeping on the floor and that she couldn’t get a response from him. She believed he was breathing.

The friend came to their home and found him lying face down on the living room floor. She found him cold to the touch, and called 999 before beginning CPR.

Paramedics took over but their attempts were unsuccessful.

A postmortem carried out by consultant pathologist Dr Petya Nadiva revealed the presence of synthetic cannabinoids in Mr Roberts’ system.

Pembrokeshire coroner, Paul Bennett, explained that these were manufactured drugs that has, as a base, a cannabis origin.

He said that, as a result of the amount of this substance in his system, Mr Roberts’ body would have suffered an adverse reaction, namely cardio-respiratory depression.

Dr Nadiva gave the cause of death as drug intoxication, synthetic cannabinoids (Spice) and chronic drug abuse.

Mr Bennett recorded a conclusion of drug-related death, adding that this was in no way a judgement on Mr Roberts’ lifestyle, and offered his condolences to the family.