Why the Coroner Knows in Days but You Don't Know For Weeks

12/Jan/2010

After the sudden death of two young celebrities, Brittany Murphy and Casey Johnson, the world awaits the autopsy verdict: were drugs, prescription or otherwise, responsible for their untimely demise?
Toxicology reports pronouncing the cause of death for these two young celebrities will not be released for weeks, possibly months.
But experts say the delays are often caused by a combination of overwhelmed toxicology labs, and cautious prosecutors, not by the length of the testing procedures.
Does it really take that long to run most of these drug tests? According to forensic pathologist to the stars, Dr. Cyril Wecht, "Certainly not."
"It does not take several weeks," says Wecht. "That's sheer nonsense. Most of the time they tell the media that to get them off their backs.”
"If the autopsy is done in the morning, the specimen is at the lab by lunchtime, and in my opinion, within 48 hours -- once the test are started -- they have a pretty good idea of what drug and how much," Wecht says concerning cases involving prescription drug overdoses.
"We're not dealing with rare cobra venom or the saliva from a South American frog," he adds. "We're dealing with Demerol or Oxycodone -- these are drugs people take all the time."
In an emergency room, he points out, "they will draw blood and submit to their lab and they'll have responses back in a few hours, because it's a matter of life or death.”

Full article at: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Drugs/celeb-death/story?id=9492088