Cannabis detection in postmortem toxicology among suicide decedents in the Federal District, Brazil, 2009-2019.

OBJECTIVES

To analyze factors associated with postmortem cannabis detection among suicide decedents in the Federal District, Brazil.

METHODS

Population-based cross-sectional study of 1164 suicide deaths (2009-2019) with toxicological data, drawing on death certificates, police reports, and Legal Medicine Institute (IML) forensic postmortem examinations. Poisson regression with robust variance yielded crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) with 95% confidence intervals.

RESULTS

Cannabis was detected in 7.8% of cases. Independent correlates included age 12-17 years (aPR = 4.61; 95%CI: 1.31-16.17), prior criminal offense record (aPR = 1.71; 95%CI: 1.11-2.63), the period 2016-2019 (aPR = 2.83; 95%CI: 1.20-6.67), and concurrent cocaine detection (aPR = 2.57; 95%CI: 1.67-3.96).

CONCLUSION

Cannabis detection clustered in high-vulnerability subgroups marked by younger age, criminal history, and polysubstance use, a profile that may inform postvention surveillance and targeted substance-use screening among suicide decedents.