Meth levels

[henry641]

SWIM has been searching for an answer to his question for quite some time.

SWIM's mother was killed 5 years ago in a car accident, upon stumbling (searching, rather) for SWIM's mother's autopsy report out of curiosity he discovered that his mother was under the influence of methamphetamine's at a dosage of 2.9mg/L which is described in the autopsy report as FATAL.

Now, SWIM understands that today's society puts a lot of negative pressure on drug use and SWIM is curious if 2.9mg/L is actually a fatal dose, or if the doctor who did the autopsy was exaggerating.

SWIM understands that SWIM's mother did not consume 2.9mg of meth but had 2.9mg PER (whatever L stands for) L in her system, SWIM is VERY curious to learn what these figures mean and to find out if this is actually a FATAL dose.

[henry641]

Does know one know? is SWIM going to have to wonder forever? SWIM has looked online all over but can't seem to find the answer... somebody please help.

[Expat98]

You might send a message to a moderator and ask them to change the title of this thread to something more specific, like, "Is 2.9mg/L a fatal dose of methamphetamine?"

That might help attract the attention of someone who can help you with this. Somebody here is bound to know. Hope you get an answer on this.

Expat98 added 10 Minutes and 21 Seconds later...

I found this journal article abstract. Sounds to me like 2.9mg/L is in fact probably a fatal dose for most people, but I'll leave it to you to interpret. (There's a thread here somewhere where you can request someone with Medline access to retrieve the whole article for you. Edit: here is the thread.)

BTW, mg/L is milligrams per liter (of blood).

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1: J Forensic Sci. 1998 Jan;43(1):28-34.

Cause and manner of death in fatalities involving methamphetamine.

Logan BK, Fligner CL, Haddix T.

Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle 98134, USA.

We reviewed a series of deaths in which methamphetamine was detected in the decedent's blood. Analysis of postmortem whole blood was performed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry with a limit of quantitation of 0.05 mg/L. Methamphetamine was detected in 146 cases; 52 were drug caused, i.e., a death in which the direct toxic effects of the drug caused or contributed to the death, 92 were classified as drug related, i.e., a death in which the drug was demonstrated in the blood, but did not directly cause death. A large proportion of the deaths resulted from homicidal (27%) or suicidal (15%) violence. An examination of methamphetamine concentrations in drug related deaths (n = 92), suggests that the range of concentrations in the recreational abusing population is substantial (0.05-9.30 mg/L) but with a median concentration of 0.42 mg/L, and with 90% of that population having concentrations less than 2.20 mg/L. There was substantial overlap in methamphetamine concentration between drug related deaths and drug caused deaths, although the highest concentrations were seen in the unintentional (accidental or undetermined) drug caused deaths. Methamphetamine related traffic deaths (n = 17) showed patterns of driving behavior consistent with reports elsewhere, and showed blood methamphetamine concentrations ranging from 0.05-2.60 mg/L (median 0.35 mg/L). The data show that most methamphetamine deaths occur with blood concentrations greater than 0.5 mg/L, but can occur with levels as low as 0.05 mg/L, though usually in conjunction with other drugs or significant natural disease. Neither apparently toxic nor therapeutic concentrations should be used in isolation to establish conclusively whether a death was caused by methamphetamine; proper classification of deaths involving methamphetamine requires complete death investigation, including investigation of the scene and circumstances of death, and a complete autopsy.

PMID: 9456521 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[mr. nawtynuff]

To elaborate a bit more to what Expat98 mentioned, I'll provide a few more details and offer some additional info to what has already been stated. As E said above, mg/L means milligrams per liter. So in an autopsy report this naturally indicates the mass measurement (milligrams) a chemical or contaminate there is per unit volume (liter) of blood in a human body. On average, the volume of blood in human body is generally around 5 liters. Because this blood volume amount will always vary, along with different individuals having tolerance levels that constantly fluctuate; it's difficult to provide an exact fatal blood meth value. Though most textbooks indicate anywhere between 0.6 mg/L & 10 mg/L. So a persons drug consumption amount or tolerance levels should always be considered when establishing a fatal blood meth value. For anyone with a low tolerance, 2.9mg/L would undeniably be considered quite high; but say someone that who uses alot rather frequently, I don't think that 2.9mg/L to be anything near a fatal blood meth level. It could probably even be a hardcore users normal B\M value. This is only my opinion, but it's based on having seen reported fatal B\M values as high as 18.0mg/L!!

For some extensive details concerning all aspects of meth use\abuse, take a look at this document, it has lots of info, both of general & scientific descriptions.

Hopefully what I mentioned above makes sense, isn't just a bunch of bullshit, and provides some further info to possibly help ya out!

Reputation Comments on this post:

Excellent info. Thanks for posting this.

[Expat98]

Mr. Nawtynuff, that is a crucial point you made about the need to consider an individual's tolerance level. Thanks.

Also, to quote from the journal abstract I quoted above, "Neither apparently toxic nor therapeutic concentrations should be used in isolation to establish conclusively whether a death was caused by methamphetamine; proper classification of deaths involving methamphetamine requires complete death investigation, including investigation of the scene and circumstances of death, and a complete autopsy."

[henry641]

SWIM knows without a doubt that SWIM's mother did not die from a direct cause of methamphetamines as the cause of death on the autopsy report was "blunt force trauma" obviously from the accident.

SWIM appreciates all of this information provided and has gained a lot of knowledge from all of your posts. Since SWIM does not know what her meth habits consisted of, there is no way for SWIM to know if 2.9mg/l was fatal for SWIM's mother.

Again, thank everyone for their EXTREMELY constructive posts.

It's unfortunate that methamphetamine levels can var so greatly from person to person, SWIM supposes he will have to have this question linger in his mind for the rest of his life, as there is no real answer.