Blackout Brownie: A Final Dessert Case Study

Abstract

Cannabis products have been becoming more widely accepted as a recreational drug and for medicinal purposes to aid in various ailments. This paper reports a death after acute ingestion of an edible cannabis brownie. The 65-year-old female decedent with a history of chronic pain ingested an edible cannabis brownie after other alternative edibles and prescribed medication produced no desired effects. After consuming the cannabis product with her husband, both began feeling high and nauseated. The decedent was last seen alive by her husband stopped part way up the stairs prior to him going to sleep. She was found expired at the base of the stairs the following morning with no apparent trauma. The autopsy concluded the decedent was obese with severe ischemic cardiovascular disease. The toxicology report detected delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol present at greater than 5000 ng/mL in the decedent’s central blood at the time of sample collection. The final cause of death was ruled as natural due to cardiovascular disease with cannabis present in her system.