DXM News: Lab finds DXM in Arkansas ovedose death

[rfgdxm]

http://nwanews.com/story_print.php?paper=n...n&storyid=21500

Crime lab says cough syrup drug may have caused student's death
BY KATE WARD Northwest Arkansas Times

Posted on Saturday, November 6, 2004

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/story/nwat/21500

The Fayetteville Police Department announced the findings of a toxicology
report in reference to the recent death of a University of Arkansas student.

On the morning of Oct. 2, Bradley Barrett Kemp, 20, was taken to Washington
Regional Medical Center after a friend called 911 to report that Kemp was
ill after consuming alcohol and hydrocodone, a drug that had been prescribed
to him as a cough suppressant, the previous night. Kemp was pronounced dead
at the hospital.

A sample of Kemp's blood was sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for
analysis. The Fayetteville Police Department said the results revealed no
evidence of alcohol but did reveal a toxic amount of the drug
dextromethorphan combined with other drugs, the report continued.
Dextromethorphan is an ingredient in over-the-counter cough syrup; if too
much is consumed, the result can be fatal. It appears Kemp's death was a
result of selfmedicating himself with dextromethorphan, diazepam,
nordiazepam, hydrocodone and alprazolam, the police report stated. "There
was a toxic amount of dextromethorphan in his system, and that alone can be
fatal," said Sergeant Shannon Gabbard. "When it is combined with other
drugs, the risk of fatality becomes even higher."

This investigation is continuing.

[Paralysis]

Talk about self-medicating.

[MR_AK]

yea totaly...

DXM fatal? BS! fucking idiots saying DXM killed him, more like the other 4 substances. not dxm it self. the media sucks.

[libel]

dextromethorphan, diazepam,
nordiazepam, hydrocodone and alprazolam

half truths make for beautiful headlines

[Midknight]

No way guys.

It is TOTALLY obvious that the only thing that killed him was Dextromethorphan. None of those other drugs has any risk at all, especially when combining them with each other.


I would like to see how high they defined "toxic"

[Mista V]

yeah seriously, nevermind the poison cocktail as a whole it MUST have been the toxic amounts of dxm

[Walkaway]

> half truths make for beautiful headlines

This wasn't even a half truth - it was 1/5th truth.

[rfgdxm]

Originally posted by MR_AK@Nov 6 2004, 04:18 PM
yea totaly...

DXM fatal? BS! fucking idiots saying DXM killed him, more like the other 4 substances. not dxm it self. the media sucks.

Extremely unlikely. Diazepam, nordiazepam, and alprazolam are benzodiazepines, and these drugs even in very high doses rarely cause death. (And BTW, either the police of this reporter blew it. Nordiazepam is a metabolite. I can find no evidence that it is marketed, so all kinds of unlikely he directly ingested nordiazepam.) And I have no reason to believe these would materially increase toxicity with DXM, hydocodone and both.

HOWEVER, hydrocodone is a narcotic analgesic. Like DXM, at high doses this causes respiratory depression. If the cause of death was respiratory depression leading to asphyxiation, as I suspect, than hydrocodone ingestion absolutely would be a contributing cause of death.

Does anyone here live in that part of Arkansas? I will be investigating this as a reporter starting Monday. What I need is the phone number of the Fayetteville Police Department, and more importantly what county Fayetteville is in, and the phone number of the coroner of that county?

I am assuming I'll get little from the police department. Looking at this news report, and some early ones, it appears his fellow fraternity members lied to the police. Specifically about him consuming lots of alcohol. If so, there may be an ongoing criminal investigation. In such cases, the police often closely control what they tell the media. And I am aware of cases where the police basically flat out fed the media disinformation.

BUT, there is a death here. The coroner will have to issue a coroner's report about this death. That report will contain the tox results. Dunno the laws about exactly how public information coroner's reports are. However, as a reporter with an established track record covering DXM deaths, likely they won't be able to withold this from me. (The Internet is merely an electronic publication medium. My site has been around a while, and the only website that is focused on documenting DXM deaths.) And, as this death is one suspicious enough the police are involved, I'd say odds are near 100% that an actual autopsy was done. Last DXM death I covered there was no suspicion of foul play AFAIK. However, the autopsy was so thorough that according to the autopsy report I have the coroner even cut out the unfortunate buggers heart, brain, etc. and weighed and examined them. I wouldn't be surprised in the least that the autopsy report of Bradley Barrett Kemp will indicate similar thoroughness.

Might take a little while for the coroner to issue a report. However, when it happens I'll definitely be trying to get a copy. In any event, expect at least one news report by me on my website about this death.

[rfgdxm]

Originally posted by GARBAGECANJUNKIE@Nov 6 2004, 09:44 PM
> half truths make for beautiful headlines

This wasn't even a half truth - it was 1/5th truth.

The report itself may have been 100% accurate. The reporter just told what the police said. However, how much credibility do you put in police sergeants when it comes to their toxicological analysis? I probably have forgot more than what 99.9% of all police sergeants know about DXM toxicity. The only thing I'd consider to have at least some credibility is the coroner's report. And it so happens I don't consider coroners infallible. My own knowledge about DXM toxicity likely exceeds that of almost all coroners. How many coroners have ever dealt with more than one DXM abuse case? Plus, if I should have any doubts about the finding of the coroner, I already am aware of several notable toxicologists who would likely respond to me if I sent them the tox results if I thought that the coroner's findings were inconsistent with them. DXM is by no means unknown to the field of toxicology. If a coroner's report listed a fatal overdose from an unusually low level of DXM, notable toxicologists would have to either come out and say they doubted this, or revise the standard reference works about fatal levels of DXM.

[ZenRaver]

Simultaneous intoxication by three respiratory depressants: Alcohol, Hydrocodone, DXM.

Case closed.