Forensic Toxicology Blog
Evidence-based articles about toxicology, expert testimony, legal developments, alcohol, drugs, and forensic testing.
People v. Houston: When a Phone Call Is Not Enough
People v. Houston, the interrogation room, and the distance between a phone call and a car ride.
California Bail Conditions: What Courts Require
In re Kowalczyk and the end of wealth-based pretrial detention.
Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) Program Analysis
Anatomy of a forensic illusion: why the “Drug Recognition Expert” evaluation looks like science, and why its own validation studies prove almost nothing.
Kosecki 2023 Blood-Fermentation Study: Limits and Evidence
A 2023 paper is increasingly cited to shut down “fermentation” defenses in DUI cases. Read closely, it answers a question no one was asking — and the literature it cites cuts the other way.
Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids: Effects, Risks and Testing
Pharmacokinetics, detection science, clinical profile, and litigation use for attorneys, judges, and forensic professionals
What the Largest U.S. Government Drugged-Driving Study Found
When prosecutors, the press, or a juror’s intuition tell you that “drugs cause crashes,” there is one study they should be made to confront: the 2015 NHTSA case-control study by Richard Compton and Amy Berning, Drug and Alcohol Crash Risk (DOT HS 812 117). It remains the largest, most carefully…
Kitagawa Balloon Test: History, Validation and Limitations
The Kitagawa balloon test, more precisely the Kitagawa-Wright detector-tube method, is sometimes treated in courtrooms and older case files as if it were a scientifically grounded measurement of blood-alcohol concentration . It is not. The most striking feature of the historical record is that the…
Why Doesn’t Blood Ferment in Living People?
Short answer: Blood in a healthy living person does not behave like a fermentation vessel because it normally contains no stable, growing microbial community. Microbes that enter briefly are usually removed by immune defenses, the liver, and the spleen before they can establish an infection. Oxygen, blood flow, and glucose…
Eleven Scientists, Two Years, and Unanswered Questions
A string of deaths and disappearances among America’s most sensitive aerospace and nuclear researchers has triggered a federal investigation — and raised questions that demand more than silence.
Stop-and-Identify Laws: When Must You Identify Yourself?
Your obligation — or lack thereof — to identify yourself to law enforcement depends heavily on where you are and why you were stopped.
Unusual Sex Laws: What the Statutes Actually Say
Unusual Statutes Governing Intimate Conduct and Personal Freedoms
BAC and Impaired-Driving Laws: A State-by-State Overview
BAC presumption statutes that codify evidentiary presumptions tied to the 0.05% BAC threshold
