A MAN found dead in his friend’s flat died of an overdose, an inquest has heard.

Jonathan Beland, from South Street, Eastbourne, had long standing issues with drugs and mental health.

The 29-year-old builder lived with his mother, but regularly visited friends houses to use a variety of drugs including heroin and cocaine.

Mr Beland, who took opioids two to three times a week, was a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic and his mother, Lisa Beland, described him as having an "addictive personality."

An inquest into his death heard Mr Beland, who had been convicted for theft after taking £1,000 out of his mother's account, often called on his family to lend him money for drugs.

He was also regularly seen sitting on the street begging for change which he would use to gamble with to make money to feed his substance misuse habit.

He spent about £150 on cocaine per week and was often in debt to drug dealers which contributed to his paranoia, the inquest heard.

Despite telling his mother he wanted to stop he continued to show a strong dependence both physically and mentally on drugs, according to Alan Craze, coroner for East Sussex.

He was found dead in friend Ian Fairweather's flat in Cavendish Place on April 7 this year after injecting heroin.

The court heard Mr Beland arrived at his friends flat clutching a syringe with a dark brown liquid.

Mr Fairweather went to the toilet for three minutes and came back to find the syringe empty and his friend "nose dive to the floor."

Despite paramedics resuscitation efforts, Mr Beland died shortly after injecting himself.

The postmortem showed he had consumed a cocktail of drugs leading up to his death including heroin, codeine, Valium and other medication used to treat depression and anxiety. The level of morphine was consistent with "severe toxicity that may lead to death", according to the toxicology report.

The inquest herd Mr Beland started drinking and using drugs, such as cannabis as a teenager.

Mr Craze said: "It’s a very tragic case.  The damage was done in his teens. Drug taking in your teens can lead to psychosis. He was physically dependent and psychologically dependent, and he was so far into it. Dependence on drugs, that what I record as my conclusion.”