Date of Award
Summer 8-2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department/Program
Forensic Science
Language
English
First Advisor or Mentor
Marta Concheiro-Guisan
Second Reader
Gail Cooper
Third Advisor
Karen Scott
Abstract
Methamphetamine (N-methylamphetamine) is a central nervous system stimulant (CNS) and sympathomimetic drug with a high addiction potential. In the United States, there has been a significant increase in the presence of methamphetamine in recent years, specifically in the Northeastern region of the country. The New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (NYC-OCME) postmortem methamphetamine casework from 2018 and 2019 was analyzed and revealed that the presence of the drug increased drastically within a span of one year, jumping from 65 cases in 2018 to 99 cases in 2019. Males were overwhelmingly responsible for much of the casework, taking up 141 (85.9%) of the cases across both years. The average age of an individual in this study was 41.73 years, with a standard deviation of 12.74 years. The average methamphetamine and amphetamine concentrations in all 164 cases was 1.23 mg/L and 0.17 mg/L, respectively. The mean concentration ratio between the drugs from metabolite to parent was 0.14. Polysubstance use among methamphetamine users is quite common and was apparent in the data which showed that out of all 164 cases, 129 users had used other drugs in combination with methamphetamine (78.7%). The four most common drugs seen in combination with methamphetamine across both years were ethanol, fentanyl, cocaine, and morphine being 41 (25%), 36 (22%), 35 (21%), and 28 (17%), respectively. Postmortem methamphetamine casework from the NYC-OCME can be explored and eventually built upon in future studies to further deduce other patterns and trends correlating to methamphetamine use.
Recommended Citation
Jewell, Isaiah, "Investigation of Postmortem Methamphetamine Cases Submitted to the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner" (2021). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/jj_etds/194