Fatal Fentanyl: A Forensic Analysis Fentanyl Floyd was a drug peddler and a petty criminal who got caught in the act of selling drugs by patrolling police. Panicking, he swallowed his own stash and overdosed as a result. Now he is being retconned into a saint.
Fentanyl Floyd was a drug peddler and a petty criminal who got caught in the act of selling drugs by patrolling police. Panicking, he swallowed his own stash and overdosed as a result. Now he is being retconned into a saint.
Thulean Friend
Floyd’s blood tests showed a concentration of Fentanyl of about three times the fatal dose.
Fentanyl is a dangerous opioid 50 times more potent than heroin. It has rapidly become the most common cause of death among drug addicts.
The knee hold used by the police is not a choke hold, it does not impede breathing. It is a body restraint and is not known to have ever caused fatal injury.
Floyd already began to complain “I can’t breathe” a few minutes before the neck restraint was applied, while resisting the officers when they tried to get him into the squad car. Fentanyl affects the breathing, causing death by respiratory arrest.
It was normal procedure to restrain Floyd because he was resisting arrest, probably in conjunction with excited delirium (EXD), an episode of violent agitation brought on by a drug overdose, typically brief and ending in death from cardiopulmonary arrest.
The official autopsy did indeed give cardiopulmonary arrest as the cause of death, and stated that injuries he sustained during the arrest were not life-threatening.
Videos of the arrest do not show police beating or striking Floyd, only calmly restraining him
In one video Floyd is heard shouting and groaning loudly and incoherently while restrained on the ground, which appears to be a sign of the violent, shouting phase of EXD. His ability to resist four officers trying to get him into the squad car is typical of EXD cases. A short spurt of superhuman strength is a classic EXD symptom.
