Because he thinks Juliet is dead. Remember that Friar Laurence's plan is to give Juliet the sleeping potion, and then let her family discover her body. When she is placed in the family tomb, Friar Laurence and Romeo will be there to see her awake - and then Romeo and Juliet can spend their lives together, far away.
This works excellently: except that Friar Laurence's letter to Romeo, explaining the plan and explaining - crucially - that Juliet is not dead, does not get delivered. Friar John is imprisoned in a house because of the plague, and cannot get the letter to Romeo. He returns it to Friar Laurence.
Romeo hears from Balthasar - who has heard it from someone else in Verona - the news of Juliet's death. He resolves to kill himself next to her body, to lie with her in death. Consumed by grief, he buys poison and drinks it next to her body. And then - tragically - she wakes up to discover his dead body: and kills herself.
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