Association between the Findings of Cannabis Metabolites and Manner of Unnatural Death in Postmortem Cases at The Institute of Forensic Medicine, Police General Hospital
Keywords:
Cannabis, manner of death, postmortemAbstract
Cannabis is a natural herb of which the main psychoactive constituent, delta-9-tetra hydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) could be associated to the manner of unnatural death, especially when co-administration with other psychoactive substances. After administration of cannabis, THC will be changed to the metabolite (THC-COOH) which is detectable in urine. This study aims to investigate the incidence of cannabis metabolite detection in urine and to investigate the association between the findings of cannabis metabolite or cannabis metabolite with other substances and the manner of unnatural death in postmortem cases. These corpses were autopsied at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Police General Hospital during January 1, 2015-June 2, 2020. The result revealed 219 cases of positive THC-COOH in urine samples from the total of 18541 cases (1.18%). The incidence was prominent in male (94.98%), Thai nationality (81.74%) with ages between 20 to 40 years old (40.18%). Manners of death of these corpses were mostly undetermined (47.94%), followed by accident (41.10%). Using Pearson Chi-square and Cramer’V, it was shown that there was a very weak association between cannabis use and manner of unnatural death. The association was very strong between pattern of cannabis use (single or combination with other psychotropic substances) and manner of unnatural death. This study provides preliminary data indicating the tendency that administration of cannabis especially as co-administration of cannabis with other psychoactive substances may associate to the unnatural death. Further investigation is suggested to confirm the information for considering cannabis use in the future.
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