Methamphetamine use in homicide victims.
| Autor: | Tan L; Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.; Forensic Science South Australia, Adelaide, Australia., Stephenson L; School of Biomedicine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia., Byard R; Forensic Science South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.; School of Biomedicine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Zdroj: | Medicine, science, and the law [Med Sci Law] 2024 Jan; Vol. 64 (1), pp. 5-7. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Mar 22. |
| DOI: | 10.1177/00258024231165433 |
| Abstrakt: | Methamphetamine use is increasing in the Australian population. It has a known association with violent and erratic behaviour and with an increased risk of unnatural deaths. To determine whether victims of homicide have significant exposure to methamphetamine 100 randomly selected de-identified homicide cases from 2012 to 2021 were accessed from the Forensic Science SA (FSSA) Pathology Database to determine the type of homicide and whether methamphetamine was detected in the blood. A total of 76 males and 24 females were found (M:F = 3:1). Of these, 30 victims (30%) had methamphetamine detected in blood, consisting of 26 males and 4 females (M:F = 6:1; male age range 18-53 years, average 36.8 years; female age range 28-63 years average 44.8 years). Levels of methamphetamine ranged from 0.02 to 3.3 mg/L with an average of 0.64 mg/L, with the highest numbers of positive cases occurring in victims of gunshot wounds (45.5%), and the lowest in those with lethal blunt force trauma (23.5%). This study has demonstrated that victims of homicide in an Australian population are more likely to have used methamphetamine than members of the general population. The reasons for this remain unclear although involvement in a drug selling environment may be an important determinant. Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. |
| Databáze: | MEDLINE |
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