drug related deaths in tehran, iran: toxicological, death and crime scene investigations

background: to determine the role of drugs in fatal overdose, analyses were done on samples obtained from autopsy examination and death and crime scene investigations. the aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of toxicology analyses of postmortem biological and non-biological samples belonging to a subject in determining the forensic cause of death. methods: toxicological analysis were done on 31 cases of fatal drug poisoning accompanied with scene evidence that had been referred to legal medicine organization(lmo) of iran, tehran, over 12 months, starting from march 2008. drugs and ethanol were detected in biological and non-biological samples through toxicological analyses. results: overall, 64.52% of the cases showed the same positive analytical results in both biological and non-biological samples. opiates were indicated in 65% of the deaths. about two thirds (64.51%) of the cases indicated the involvement of more than one drug (active ingredient). with a sex ratio of 4.16, men composed 80.65% of the study cases. the mean age for male and female victims (mean ± sd) was 34.07±11.93 and 32.67±8.04, respectively, and the majority of the cases (77.42%) were below the age of 40. conclusion: there are many important parameters in determining the forensic cause of death, among them autopsy reports, toxicological findings, police information and circumstances surrounding the death are important.