By Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent

FIVE men who slipped into comas and died earlier this year likely all took black market sex drugs, an inquiry into their deaths heard yesterday.

Some of the pills were laced with medicine that drove down their blood sugar, leading to brain swelling and eventually death, witnesses told a coroner's court.

Most of the men, who died between March and August, never admitted to taking the drugs. But autopsies, toxicology reports and statements taken from family members suggested they had.

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