Cambridge student died after taking legal high two months before it was outlawed

A Cambridge University student died after he and his girlfriend bought a legal high from the internet months before it was outlawed, an inquest heard on Monday. 

Thomas Millward, a first-year engineer, suffered an “unsurvivable” head injury after falling down several flight of steps at Girton College, Cambridge, on 6 March last year.

Mr Millward, 19, had been intoxicated on the legal-high “1P LSD” , which is a copycat version of the psychedelic drug LSD or “acid”.

He was taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital shortly after 9.30pm, where doctors declared him brain dead.

New psychoactive substances such as 1-Propionyl-lysergic acid diethylamide, nicknamed 1P LSD, have grown in popularity in recent years due to their price and availability on the dark web.

While it was outlawed in May 2016 along with thousands of new synthetic drugs under the Psychoactive Substances Act, dozens of outlets operating outside of the UK continue to sell it online.

Giving evidence at Huntingdon Law Courts yesterday, Mr Millward’s girlfriend Daniella Mieloszyk said the pair had been “overwhelmed” by the substance and had “naively” underestimated its effects.

The 21-year-old, a human, social and political sciences student at Cambridge, added:  "[We] didn't realise what it would be like and had expectations that it would be something that was a fun and positive experience which would be interesting to have. We knew it was kind of like of a legal equivalent to LSD.”

Ms Mieloszyk said the pair had taken two tabs of the then legal substance at 3pm that afternoon and had been attempting to fall asleep in Mr Millward’s bedroom.

She added that she had woken up and walked out to the landing to find him lying at the bottom of the stairwell, next to two vending machines.

"Everything just felt quite overwhelming. The next thing I remember was waking up... regaining a sense of awareness and in the room on my own," she said.

"As soon as I opened the door I saw another student called Hamish standing at the bottom of the stairs and then when I walked forward I saw that Tom was lying next to him.

"I thought it was like a dream and I just kept saying to him we thought it was a dream. I kept thinking to Tom would just walk down the stairs and be like 'oh here I am'."

The inquest also heard that Mr Millward, a keen rugby player, had suffered a concussion in a match three days before his death, and had experienced symptoms including “dizziness”.

A toxicology report found that Mr Millward had traces of the drug in his blood five hours after taking it.

Ms Mieloszyk claimed that she had been given the drugs by a friend who had purchased them online three weeks before his death.

Police officers called to the incident found the substance in a “metallic silvery bag” in a blue pouch under Mr Millward’s bed.

Detective Constable Alice Draper told the inquest that the it had been suggested “all along” that Mr Millward had taken LSD, adding that there was no suggestion of “anything sinister” in his death.

His father, Brian Millward, said: "We suspect.. only half an hour before the air ambulance (arrived) that he went to the top floor and removed his clothes on the F Block.

"Then ran back through the other corridor below back to his room and that's when he fell."

The inquest will resume on Tuesday.