Forensic Pathology for Police - Brainshare Public Online Library

Toxicology Issues 263
Fig. 11.10 An opened stomach at autopsy, showing residual gastric contents containing pill
residue, along with two specimen containers that contain the majority of the gastric contents. Note
that a large amount of pill residue has settled toward the bottom of each container
Fig. 11.11 A portion of the sigmoid colon opened at autopsy, revealing a foreign body composed
of plastic cellophane material wrapped around numerous pills. The decedent presumably ingested
the material several days earlier in an attempt to rob a “friend” of the drugs
Toxicology Issues
With any substance (drug, poison) that is present in a person’s body, there are a
variety of terms that are used to describe processes involving that substance. The
“route” of exposure or administration describes how the substance gets into a person’s
blood stream. Common routes are ingestion (through the GI tract), injection
(via a needle intravenously (into a vein), intramuscularly (into a muscle), or subcutaneously
(under the skin)), inhalation (breathing it in, either directly or via burning
or smoking it), and insufflation (snorting). The term “metabolism” describes how
the human body breaks down the substance. Two common locations for drug/toxin
metabolism are the liver and the bloodstream itself, where various enzymes can