Toxicological Investigations of Reportable Deaths Involving Methylamphetamine

Methylamphetamine is an addictive stimulant drug and its harms in Australia have increased over the previous decade. However, this thesis shows deaths caused by the direct toxic effects of methylamphetamine were incredibly rare and often complicated by the long-term harms of chronic methylamphetamine abuse. These harms also included many deceased children exposed to methylamphetamine identified by hair analysis. While external contamination of hair remains a key pitfall of hair analysis, new analytical methods to detect methylamphetamine metabolites in hair were developed and have the potential to improve the interpretation of positive findings.