Citation

Dwyer JB, Janssen J, Luckasevic TM, Williams KE. J. Forensic Sci. 2018; 63(1): 195-200.

Affiliation

Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner, 1520 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15222.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.13517

PMID

28605020

Abstract

Acetyl fentanyl is a Schedule I controlled synthetic opioid that is becoming an increasingly detected "designer drug." Routine drug screening procedures in local forensic toxicology laboratories identified a total of 41 overdose deaths associated with acetyl fentanyl within multiple counties of the southwestern region of the state of Pennsylvania. The range, median, mean, and standard deviation of blood acetyl fentanyl concentrations for these 41 cases were 0.13-2100 ng/mL, 11 ng/mL, 169.3 ng/mL, and 405.3 ng/mL, respectively. Thirty-six individuals (88%) had a confirmed history of substance abuse, and all but one case (96%) were ruled multiple drug toxicities. This report characterizes this localized trend of overdose deaths associated with acetyl fentanyl and provides further evidence supporting an alarmingly concentrated opiate and opioid epidemic of both traditional and novel drugs within this region of the United States.

© 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Language: en

Keywords

acetyl fentanyl; fentanyl; forensic science; forensic toxicology; overdose; postmortem; synthetic opioids