From the
Athens Banner-Herald:
When a county coroner sends a body to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Crime Lab, it takes an average of 84 days to determine the cause of death - but if drugs are involved, the time can stretch to six months.
During the three to six months a family is left waiting for the death certificate that allows them to access life insurance and Social Security benefits, bills pile up, homes are lost and loved ones are left in emotional limbo.
Some county coroners get around the wait by issuing pending death certificates to families, but those papers can't be used to claim life insurance or Social Security benefits.
Others, trying to expedite the autopsy process, have resorted to paying private medical examiners and labs to perform necessary autopsies and toxicology tests, but most counties can't afford the services.
Barrow County Coroner David Crosby is dealing with a growing number of cases in which drugs may be a factor in the cause of death, he said.
Crosby records an average of 30 accidental overdoses a year, he said.
These cases are increasing across the state and account for about 20 percent of the 4,000 or so autopsies the crime lab performed in 2009.
Suspected overdose deaths take longer to investigate because of the complexity of figuring out which drug killed the person, said GBI spokesman John Bankhead.
The GBI's crime lab has been cash-strapped since the late 1990s, but the state's recent budget cuts have exacerbated staffing shortages that have led to backlogs in all services - from
toxicology tests for DUI cases, to
DNA testing for rape investigations, to firearms testing.