Man, 41, found dead after taking legal high

He had been smoking a substance called Exodus, sold as a herbal incense, with others the previous evening.

Stephen Lowe, 41, of Queen’s Drive, Barnsley, was found dead by his partner Leanne Barton last Saturday.

Det Chief Insp Mark Wilkie said it was the first case in the town of a death being linked to a “legal high” drug.

He said: “He is the first person we are aware of who has taken something and ended up dead, even though we can’t say he died because of that.

“The result of the post-mortem was inconclusive, but he has taken legal highs along with a cocktail of alcohol.

“We don’t know the cause of death until we get the toxicological reports, but that can take weeks.”

It is legal for shops to sell substances such as Exodus but the police are alarmed that they are not being used for their intended purpose.

The officer said: “The Government will become aware of them and will try to classify them and make them illegal. But up until then people can sell them and they are not doing anything wrong.

“Smoking, eating or injecting such substances which have no medical testing is dangerous.

“It is unbelievable what some people will put in their bodies. The message is, don’t take them.”