A combination of drugs and alcohol contributed to the death of an NIU student last April, a jury panel officially announced at an inquest July 6.

Stenio LaPlanche, 20, passed out with a .16 percent alcohol blood level and suffocated on his vomit. Traces of cocaine also were found in his body. However, because tests are still in progress, the DeKalb County Coroner’s office does not know what other chemicals could be discovered.

A spokesman for the office said both drugs and alcohol contributed to LaPlanche’s vomiting, and because he was unconscious, they also caused respiratory failure.

The coroner’s six-member jury panel suggested the police investigate the Eagles Club, 4th and Locust streets, where LaPlanche was drinking the night he died.

LaPlanche was pronounced dead April 23, after his roommates found him unconscious in a car outside of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, 900 Greenbrier Road.

Earlier reports state the students were drinking alcohol at their home before going to the Eagles Club.

LaPlanche’s four roommates later visited some friends near the fraternity house, but Stenio remained in the car.

Mike Haines, Health Enhancement Services coordinator, said that though a mixture of cocaine and alcohol can cause death, it is not the result of a chemical reaction.

“Technically, the effects (of combining cocaine and alcohol) are considered antagonistic. They work against each other,” he said.

Haines said that because alcohol counteracts the effects of cocaine, an individual might not realize how “high” he is and therefore might continue to increase doses of cocaine.

This could cause an overdose, Haines said.

Daryl Jackson, administrative director at Kishwaukee Community Hospital’s Alcoholism and Chemical Dependency Treatment Center, said another danger in cocaine abuse is “cocaine psychosis.” This reaction, which can last hours or days, causes the user to become disoriented, paranoid and anxious.

He said cocaine could be lethal because it increases the heart rate, respiratory system and nervous system. Alcohol, on the other hand, causes these systems to collapse.