Bromazolam Blood Concentrations in Postmortem Cases—A British Columbia Perspective

Abstract

Bromazolam is a designer benzodiazepine that was first detected in British Columbia in January 2021. Postmortem cases were analyzed using a comprehensive blood drug screening procedure by liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry before being retrospectively analyzed using an in-house novel psychoactive substances data processing method. Bromazolam was detected in 41 postmortem cases in 2021 and quantitatively confirmed by standard addition, using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. The mean bromazolam concentration observed was 11.4 ± 53.7 ng/mL (median concentration: 1.6 ng/mL), with a range from 0.5 to 319.3 ng/mL and the majority of cases co-occurring with fentanyl. These low concentrations may be indicative of a presumed enhancement of opioid effects, rather than being used as a stand-alone drug. Bromazolam was always detected with opioids (fentanyl and carfentanil), stimulants (methamphetamine) and/or other benzodiazepines (etizolam and flualprazolam). To our knowledge, this is the first report to provide concentrations of bromazolam in postmortem blood samples in Canada.