Department of Forensic Genetics and Forensic Toxicology, Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine, Linköping, Sweden; Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
Multiple arrests for use of illicit drugs and/or impaired driving strongly suggests the existence of a personality disorder and/or a substance abuse problem.
This retrospective study (1993-2010) used a national forensic toxicology database (TOXBASE), and we identified 3943 individuals with two or more arrests for use of illicit drugs and/or impaired driving. These individuals had subsequently died from a fatal drug poisoning or some other cause of death, such as trauma.
Of the 3943 repeat offenders 1807 (46%) died from a fatal drug overdose and 2136 (54%) died from other causes (p