No abstract

A 47-year old white female was reported missing by her family after an argument with her husband and son. The arguments were of long and continuing nature with sharp differences as to the use of real properties. Her body was discovered by the family dog eight months later in a desolate area on the family ranch on the slope of a hill.

The recent improvements in analytic methods enable routine morphine detection in blood in microgram or nanogram quantities. It is now possible to assess acute death from heroin use by toxicologic analyses. A review of available data indicates a rapid distribution of morphine even in sudden fatalities, to the various organs of the body. Blood morphine levels in most acute heroin-involved deaths range from 0.1 to 1.0 microgram/ml, while morphine concentration in liver ranges from 0.1 to 10.0 microgram/gm. In rapid death, the blood to liver ratio is approximately 1:5. Blood and liver appear to be the specimens of choice in determining fatality due to heroin; however a distribution study that included other tissues such as brain, bile, and urine would afford a more meaningful evaluation in forensic investigation. The correlation of the survival periods of decedents to concentrations of morphine in tissues is discussed. Since morphine concentration decreases precipitously in antemortem blood immediately after administration of heroin, the assurance of detecting and determining morphine is greater in blood specimens from decedents who died within 1 hr after drug taking than from those who survived for a longer period. Blood levels of morphine also appear to be regulated by dosage. The role of ethanol and other drugs, including excipients in illicit heroin preparations, in acute narcotism is still poorly understood. Morphine is produced in the antemortem metabolism of codeine. A close evaluation of toxicologic data is necessary to determine whether the morphine detected, if a metabolite, is a conversion product of codeine, heroin, or both. In any event, the cause of death involving heroin is determined only after information from history and pathology, as well as toxicology, are carefully correlated.

No abstract

The current widespread use of the illicit drug phencyclidine (PCP), more commonly known as “angel dust” by the “street people,” elicits not only a health hazard but also criminality through violence and public disturbance. Files of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Crime Laboratory show that 25.3% of the 17 000 drug possession cases in 1976 involved PCP. Since the drug can be readily prepared clandestinely, it has been substituted for tetrahydrocannabinol and mescaline for illicit distribution. Jain et al [1] reported that in the analysis of urine specimens from probationers in Los Angeles County there was an increase in the PCP-positive samples from 36 to 145 for the months of January and February from 1975 to 1976. In 1977, there were 435 positives in these two months. The consequence of this street activity was that approximately 50 PCP cases per month were admitted on an emergency basis to the Los Angeles County General Hospital in 1976.