Urinary Cannabis Metabolite Detections in Suspects and Postmortem Cases Before and After the Notification of the Narcotics Act B.E. 2565
Keywords:
cannabis, manner of death, narcotics actAbstract
Cannabis contains substantial amounts of the psychoactive substance delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol --Δ9-THC, which is primarily responsible for the effects of marijuana on a person’s mental state, which could lead to an unnatural death. This study aims to evaluate the incidence of cannabis metabolite detections in urine samples of suspects and corpses. The association between the manner of unnatural death and the findings of the main cannabis metabolites in postmortem cases six months before and after the notification of the Narcotics Act B.E. 2565 was examined. The retrospective data was collected from laboratory results of suspects and postmortem cases whose urine samples were determined for narcotic or psychoactive substances at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Police General Hospital, from December 1, 2021, to December 31, 2022. The result revealed 81 cases (2.75%) of positive cannabis metabolites in urine samples out of 2,942 cases. Among these positive cases, 32 cases (2.32%) were from the urine samples collected 6 months before the notification of the Narcotics Act B.E. 2565 (December 1, 2021 to June 8, 2022), and 49 cases (3.13%) were from 6 months after canceling cannabis from the drugs of abuse list (June 9, 2022 to December 31, 2022). Most of the positive cases were males of Thai nationality, aged between 18 and 59 years old. There was no significant difference in co-substance use before and after the law took place. The main manner of death in this study was unknown, followed by accidental death. It was shown that during the six months after the cancellation, the incidence of positive cannabis cases of all manners of death was higher than that of the six months before the cancellation. However, when using the Fisher’s exact test, it was found that the incidence of positive cannabis cases during the 6 months before and 6 months after the cancellation was not significantly associated with the manner of death. Additional study with a longer period of time for sample collection is suggested.
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