A HIGH FATAL POSTMORTEM BLOOD-CONCENTRATION OF COCAINE IN A DRUG COURIER

A fatality in a teenage drug courier who swallowed multiple packages o f a controlled drug for concealment in the gastrointestinal tract is d escribed. There were a couple of burst-open short cylindrical packages of cocaine and several with damaged external latex wrapping. A hazard ous breakage or leakage has been considered unlikely with similar type of cocaine packages otherwise. The deceased succumbed to a remarkably high fatal postmortem blood cocaine concentration of 104 mg/l, having curiously survived the usual lethal range for cocaine toxicity. The p henomenon of postmortem release and redistribution of drugs and sponta neous biodegradation of cocaine which may confound the postmortem toxi cology is briefly discussed. There is a comparable forensic problem in estimating the time of drug ingestion from the rate of gastric emptyi ng or transit in the gut as a crude guide to deduce the time of death.