LEGAL highs caused the death of a festival goer.

Jonathan Graham, 33, had consumed 5-EAPB, also named Benzo Fury, at the Brownstock Festival in Stow Maries on August 31 last year.

He woke the next day feeling unwell and his condition rapidly deteriorated.

Paramedics were called to the festival site and took him to Basildon Hospital, where he died later day.

Forensic pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary found Mr Graham’s cause of death to be stimulant drug intoxication, the inquest at Chelmsford Coroners Court heard.

Essex Police had said his death was non-suspicious.

Mr Graham, of Great Baddow, had ordered the drug online and the package arrived purporting to be a research chemical marked not for human consumption, the hearing was told.

Its effects are similar to ecstasy or MDMA, with users experiencing feelings of euphoria and empathy.

The drug can also cause respiratory and cardiac failure.

Coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray, who recorded the death as an accident, said she was aware there were several other deaths involving the drug.

She felt drug companies were causing “insidious mischief” by making drugs that stay within the law.

“The companies are now devising and concocting new drugs,” she said.

“It’s insidious mischief.

“They are getting away with it by making them one molecule different.”

At the time of Mr Graham’s death, 5-EAPB was a legal high but it is now under a temporary control order.