Forensic Toxicology Blog
Evidence-based articles about toxicology, expert testimony, legal developments, alcohol, drugs, and forensic testing.
Picograms Per Breath Pad Were Not Picograms Per Liter of Air
The breath assay reported recovered cannabinoid mass per collection pad. That unit should not be relabeled as concentration per liter of exhaled air without the necessary sampling-volume information. The collection was time-based Participants breathed normally through the collection arrangement for three minutes, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the…
Greater THC Lipophilicity Did Not Predict Greater Redistribution in This Series
The investigators expected parent THC to redistribute more than its more polar metabolites, but the observed series did not support that ranking. A chemical-property hypothesis should not be presented as the study’s demonstrated result. The hypothesis preceded the comparison The authors proposed that THC’s lipid solubility and distribution characteristics would…
Antemortem and Postmortem Cannabinoid Samples Used Different Preservatives
The available antemortem and postmortem blood samples differed in preservative as well as collection time and physiological state. A concentration difference could not be isolated as a pure effect of death or redistribution. The paired subset was small Only three cases in the human series had available antemortem whole blood….
Unquantifiable Postmortem Cannabinoid Results Were Not Negative Results
Some postmortem specimens could not be quantified because matrix interference compromised the analysis. The paper distinguished those results from values below the quantification limit. The analytical failures were explicit In the nineteen-case series, decomposition-related or other in-vitro breakdown products affected chromatography in some stored specimens. Repeat analyses and reduced sample…
Subjective and Task Peaks Occupied Different Windows After Oral THC
Subjective drug effects generally peaked earlier than the largest task deficits in the brownie experiment. One person’s early report therefore could not be assumed to characterize the entire later performance course. The study measured several time courses The authors reported that subjective effects became perceptible on average around thirty minutes…
Sex Main Effects Did Not Demonstrate Different THC Dose Responses
Women and men differed on some overall ratings and vital signs, but the study did not find sex-by-dose interactions for those outcomes. An overall sex difference should not be rewritten as a proven difference in response to increasing THC dose. The analysis included both terms The seventeen-person brownie trial reported…
Vomiting Occurred Several Hours After Two Oral THC Doses
Two participants vomited approximately three hours after dosing, one in the 25 mg and another in the 50 mg condition. The timing shows why immediate post-ingestion observations alone did not describe the full session. The events were reported in a small trial Seventeen healthy infrequent cannabis users received placebo and…
The Brownie Trial Verified a Preparation Procedure for THC Dosing
The investigators heated cannabis before baking and tested sample brownies to check decarboxylation and target doses. That preparation evidence is more specific than assuming every edible labeled with the same THC amount delivers an equivalent exposure. The products were prepared for the experiment The trial used brownies containing 0, 10,…
Balloon-Task Risk Taking Had an Overall Time Effect Without a Group Interaction
Balloon-task scores changed across sessions, but the study did not find a significant session-by-use-group interaction. That pattern differs from claiming that occasional and frequent smokers showed demonstrably different THC effects on risk taking. The outcome was adjusted balloon pumps Participants earned small monetary amounts by inflating virtual balloons while risking…
Some Missing Cannabis Attention Scores Were Replaced With Group Means
The smoking study replaced some missing divided-attention observations with group means. Those values were analytic substitutions, not additional measurements of the missing participants’ actual performance. The report identified the missing observations Divided Attention Task data were absent for two occasional users at approximately 5.6 hours and for a frequent and…
Poor Baseline Tracking Performance Changed the Analyzed Cannabis Sample
Three occasional smokers’ critical-tracking data were excluded because their baseline performance limited the ability to measure further deterioration. The resulting task comparison did not include every enrolled occasional participant. The task required an interpretable starting point The Critical Tracking Task measured the limit at which participants could maintain control of…
Biological Results Changed Two Cannabis-Use Group Assignments
Two participants who reported occasional use were retrospectively classified as frequent smokers using cannabinoid results. That decision matters when interpreting the relationship between group labels and biological concentrations. The categories used more than self-report The smoking study ultimately compared fourteen frequent with eleven occasional users. The authors reclassified two participants…
