Citation

Lozano JG, Healy NL, Kimberley Molina D. J. Forensic Sci. 2016; 62(3): 691-694.

Affiliation

Forensic Pathology Fellow, Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office, 7337 Louis Pasteur Drive, San Antonio, TX, 78229-4565.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.13329

PMID

27921312

Abstract

Many illicit drugs involve the use of paraphernalia, and the presence of paraphernalia found at the scene of death may suggest that the death is drug-related. Few sources of objective data are available regarding the prevalence of drug paraphernalia found at the scene of drug-related deaths or the likelihood of a death with drug paraphernalia found at the scene to be drug-related. This study reviews the deaths which were investigated by the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office in an attempt to provide objective data. Over 4000 deaths with scene investigations were reviewed, and the presence of paraphernalia was found to be strongly associated with the death being drug-related, heroin-related, or cocaine-related with the relative risk for each being 5.0, 15.4, and 6.6, respectively. This confirms that the presence of drug paraphernalia at the scene of death strongly suggests the death to be drug-related and in particular heroin-related.

© 2016 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Language: en