MINNEAPOLIS (CelebrityAccess) A toxicology report from Prince’s autopsy obtained by the Associated Press March 26 showed the performer had an “exceedingly high” concentration of fentanyl in his body.
The confidential report follows public data released six weeks after Prince’s death that showed he died of an accidentally overdose of the opioid and search warrants at Prince’s house found several pills that tested positive for fentanyl. Today’s announcement, however, provides the heavy amounts of the drug that was found in Prince’s system.
Concentration of fentanyl in Prince’s blood was 67.8 micrograms per liter, and the document explains that fatalities can range from blood levels from three to 58 micrograms per liter, according to the Associated Press. The report also says the level in Prince’s liver was 450 micrograms per kilogram when concentrations above 69 micrograms per kilogram “seem to represent overdose or fatal toxicity cases.”
“The amount in his blood is exceedingly high, even for somebody who is a chronic pain patient on fentanyl patches,” Dr. Lewis Nelson, chairman of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, told the AP. He said the concentrations “a pretty clear smoking gun.”
Another expert said the findings suggested Prince took the drug orally and the opiod in the blood and liver suggest it had some time to circulate before he died.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin.
The lead prosecutor in the county were Prince died recently said he is reviewing law enforcement reports and would make a decision on whether to charge anyone “in the near future.”
