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Committee does not advance bill requiring coroners to report psychiatric drugs after violent deaths amid privacy and resource concerns
Summary
A proposed bill that would require coroners to test for and publicly report therapeutic levels of psychiatric medications in all suicides and homicides drew broad opposition from coroners, public health officials and family witnesses and was not moved by the committee. Opponents cited privacy, administrative burden on understaffed county coroner
A bill draft that would have required coroners to order toxicology screenings measuring therapeutic levels of psychiatric drugs for all violent deaths and to include psychiatric drug presence in coroner dockets and state reporting generated sharp pushback and was not advanced by the Joint Labor committee.
The draft (26 LSO 0205, "Death Data Collection and Toxicology Transparency Act") would have created new reporting requirements, required coroners to record measured blood concentrations and characterizations (therapeutic/subtherapeutic/toxic) for psychiatric drugs, and required submission of aggregated violent‑death data to the Wyoming Department of Health and the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). The draft also included a provision creating a misdemeanor penalty for a coroner, medical examiner or public official who failed to comply with the act.
Rebecca Reed, Laramie County coroner, testified in opposition…
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