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Satanica

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Bold Member!
[....]
The coroner's claim would make it the first-ever recorded death from a marijuana overdose, but the result is also drawing fire from skeptics. The 39-year-old woman's body was found in her apartment in LaPlace. Her name has not been released. St. John the Baptist Parish Coroner Christy Montegut told the New Orleans Advocate that the toxicology results showed that the woman was killed by an excess amount of THC.

“It looked like it was all THC because her autopsy showed no physical disease or afflictions that were the cause of death. There was nothing else identified in the toxicology — no other drugs, no alcohol,” Montegut told the paper. “There was nothing else.”

Montegut believes the woman's death could be an index case, “perhaps the first death on record solely as a result of THC exposure,” the paper reported.

The coroner said that the THC in her system likely came through a vaping device with highly concentrated THC oil. The toxicology report said she had 8.4 nanograms per milliliter of blood.

“I’m thinking this lady must have vaped this THC oil and got a high level in her system and (it) made her stop breathing, like a respiratory failure,” he told the Advocate.

At this time, there's no specific threshold considered by experts to be a lethal dose, the paper reported.

But based on the research of Bernard Le Foll, a professor and scientist at the University of Toronto who studies addiction, he estimated that any dangerous threshold would likely fall between 100 and 1,000 times higher than the THC level found in the woman’s blood, according to the report.

Le Foll also told the paper that there's no way to be sure how much THC was in the woman's system when she died. This is because by the time an autopsy was done, the THC concentration -- which does fall quickly -- would have “certainly gone down.”

Robert Johannessen, Louisiana's Department of Health spokesman, told the Advocate that Montegut's report appears to be the first to attribute a death to THC alone — in Louisiana, at least. He said all other deaths that he’s seen recorded with THC mentioned involved a combination with another drug.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse said there’s never been an adult death attributed to THC.
[....]
Keith Humphreys, a former senior policy adviser at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, has a different take. He told the paper that if THC was toxic at consumable levels, more marijuana overdose deaths would have been recorded already.

“We know from really good survey data that Americans use cannabis products billions of times a year, collectively. Not millions of times, but billions of times a year,” Humphreys said. “So, that means that if the risk of death was one in a million, we would have a couple thousand cannabis overdose deaths a year.”

He said it's common for coroners to see a drug in the system and conclude that the drug was the cause, with no other sign for what might have caused an event that led to the person's death, according to the report.

"There's always some imperfection in these kinds of assessments," he said.
[....]



In other local news, there will be a public screening of Reefer Madness tomorrow afternoon in the park. :penguin:

 
“We know from really good survey data that Americans use cannabis products billions of times a year, collectively. Not millions of times, but billions of times a year,” Humphreys said. “So, that means that if the risk of death was one in a million, we would have a couple thousand cannabis overdose deaths a year.”

I do tend to agree with this. People would have already found a way to die from it, if that were so easily done.
 
This statement is the opposite of the scientific method.


Right?!? Fucking ridiculous. This is "I can't find any other reason so let's grasp at the one thing I did notice and can roughly quantify".

I'd be much more inclined to believe her vape pen zapped her and caused a fatal arrhythmia or something else equally bizarre that she hasn't considered yet.
 
Keep in mind in order to be a coroner you do not have to have medical experience training or understanding. We're not playing Corner they could be waiting the counter at Taco Bell. Guaranteed THC have nothing to do with this person's death

I guarantee that corners had nothing to do with with womans death. You do haveta watch yourself around those sharp edges, though. They can be painful when you wack your elbows. And after all, 13% of corners are responsible for over 50% of all hits to the funny bone....
 
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It blows my mind that they just let randoms be coroners. Nobody thought that was a bad idea? Letting someone with no medical experience or training decide causes of death? Really? Is there some rationale I'm missing?
It does appear the minimum qualifications to apply as coroner in Louisianan are relatively common across the US and only 4 require a coroner to be a physician (Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Ohio), here's a CDC link. Though in practice, many, of not most are either physicians, RNs, or other with years of medical knowledge, especially in causes of death. This particular coroner is Dr. Christy Montegut, a practicing physician with over 20 years experience.

I decided to look the good Doctor up about their practice. Nothing really remarkable, except that a rash of negative reviews popped up early June, right after Dr. Montegut issued a death certificate about the suspected death by THC poisoning. Here's one:
(1 star out of 5)This woman is just DUMB.
Self-verified patient of Dr. Christy A Montegut - Posted on June 7th, 2019
Well I must say this Dr. needs to go back to school and learn how to Dr. Don't waste your time and money!
The problem is Dr. Christy Montegut is a man.
 
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