Family members wanting to know what caused their loved one’s death used to wait four to six months for postmortem toxicology results. But new technology can now give them an answer in less than 30 minutes.

Clatsop County became the first in Oregon last month to use the Randox Multistat Analyzer, which cost $50,000. The new technology, implemented at the Medical Examiner Division, has made it drastically quicker and easier to determine toxicology levels in the midst of a surge of overdose deaths in the county.

Elizabeth DeVisser, the county’s chief medicolegal death investigator, said the analyzer, which shows toxicology level results in 30 minutes, is a game-changer for public health, legal proceedings and keeping affected families informed.

The machine works with blood, urine or vitreous fluid — fluid that comes from the eyes — and uses 29 different tests to detect levels of various drugs. The short turnaround time means that information can be given rapidly to the district attorney’s office, the public health department and families.

“So if somebody dies and we think drugs are suspected, then I will go ahead and run their blood through the machine and be able to give them an answer,” she said.

The surge in drug-related fatalities in the county comes as overdose deaths have decreased in other parts of Oregon.

“On the public health side, we have a crisis in our county right now … Last year, we had 17 confirmed drug deaths,” DeVisser said. “And this year, we’re at 16, just in our county. We’re only four months in.

“And if we had to wait for four to six months for the results to come back, then our ability to do anything about that and get the word out to the community that ‘Hey, we’ve got this going on, you’ve got to be really careful out there in the streets.’”

With such a high number of cases in a very short amount of time, DeVisser said it’s important for the county to look at at-risk communities and see what can be done to help them.

The county has also implemented other responses to the surge in drug-related fatalities; TruNarc, a handheld narcotics analyzer, will allow authorities to test drugs by hand without risking harmful exposure to police officers.

“On the legal aspect, let’s say we’ve got a case where somebody died at home and we see that there’s fentanyl there,” she said. “A lot of times, the district attorney may not be able to move forward on prosecuting a case on a drug dealer without knowing what was in the person’s system.”

Clatsop County has now prosecuted two different drug dealers for the overdose deaths of people they dealt to, Joseph Meneguzzi in 2023 and Jamie Brown in 2024. Both defendants received prison sentences for criminally negligent homicide.

Hopefully, DeVisser said, the introduction of the Randox Multistat Analyzer will help prosecute more drug dealers whose deliveries have proved fatal for others.

“On the community side, it is so heartbreaking to have a grieving family and have to tell them, you know, ‘I’m not going to have an answer for you,’” DeVisser said. “For them, it’s essentially just playing a waiting game. They’re already going through the most difficult time in their lives, and then asking them to wait even longer just makes this already difficult situation even worse.”

DeVisser has used the new machine for six different cases since it was implemented last month. Each case had drugs as a contributing factor, meaning that drugs were found at the scene or that the subject had a history of drug abuse.

Within minutes, she was able to utilize toxicology levels to determine that every one of those deaths was directly due to an overdose, usually by fentanyl or methamphetamines.

DeVisser said that she believes once the machine becomes more popular within smaller counties or even more major jurisdictions — King County in Washington is already using it — people will see the Randox Multistat Analyzer being used a lot more nationwide.

“Now, being able to have these tools at hand allows the county to address this incredible surge in drugs that we’re seeing,” she said. “Not even just fatal overdoses, but overdoses in general.”