The seed queen

Although many drugs are routinely used in medicine and therefore knowledge of them is potentially important in death investigations, the actual manufacture or composition of the individual tablets or capsules is not general forensic information. Some of this information is protected under laws dealing with manufacturing secrets, and some is patent information pertaining to methods of manufacturing. When tablets or capsules are part of the evidence from the victim, their appearance may not always be in the form that is expected. This case presents a misidentification of tablet material as "seeds" that resulted in a delayed diagnosis of the cause of death. The composition of the tablet material is discussed so that others may avoid this error.