On television crime shows, the results of toxicology tests are spewed out at warp speed, sometimes available even before the autopsy is complete.
In real life, toxicology test results take much longer, experts say, explaining the lag time between Michael Jackson’s sudden death on June 25 and the release of the full results of his toxicology testing more than a month later.
“Some of the tests take days, weeks, months,” says Alan Hall, MD, a board-certified toxicologist and consultant in Laramie, Wyo. The final toxicology report, he says, draws not only from multiple test results and confirmation of the results, but also on the clinical experience of the toxicologists and pathologists involved in the investigation, as well as field work.
Read on as Hall and two other experts shed light on toxicology tests — what they include, why they take so long, and why they’re never perfect.