http://www.duiblog.com/2006/01/24/maced/ Bad Drunk Driving Laws, False Evidence and a Fading Constitution Fri, 24 May 2013 04:52:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 http://www.duiblog.com/2006/01/24/maced/comment-page-1/#comment-46 Tox Lab Guy Tue, 24 Jan 2006 22:26:18 +0000 http://duiblog.level2hosting.com/?p=292#comment-46 <a></a>Maybe I need to take up <a href="http://lua.weblog.com.pt/CAFFEINE.JPG" rel="nofollow">coffee</A>... Caffeine is a common "artifact" in postmortem and human performance toxicology. I put that in quotes because although it truly is present in probably 50-75% of postmortem casework, it is usually not reported, unless the levels are very high. It is extracted, along with most other drugs, under alkaline conditions. Alcohol is a far less complex analysis, as there is no chemical extraction from the biological matrix involved. One day when case backlog was minimal (sarcasm) we sampled and quantitated various cokes and coffees to have some fun with a caffeine "enhanced" co-worker. I don't remember what our quant results were, but the chromatograms keep showing up on his desk, years later. Keep up the great work. Maybe I need to take up coffee…
Caffeine is a common “artifact” in postmortem and human performance toxicology. I put that in quotes because although it truly is present in probably 50-75% of postmortem casework, it is usually not reported, unless the levels are very high. It is extracted, along with most other drugs, under alkaline conditions. Alcohol is a far less complex analysis, as there is no chemical extraction from the biological matrix involved.
One day when case backlog was minimal (sarcasm) we sampled and quantitated various cokes and coffees to have some fun with a caffeine “enhanced” co-worker. I don’t remember what our quant results were, but the chromatograms keep showing up on his desk, years later.
Keep up the great work.

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