Drugs found in Christian Glass' system after he was shot, killed by Clear Creek County Sheriff's deputies
Yes, there were drugs in Christian Glass' system: how does it play into the equation after being shot by deputies after calling for help?
CBS News Colorado has shown the body camera footage from the night in June when Christian Glass, 22, was shot five times by a Clear Creek County Sheriff's deputy after Glass refused to leave his car in Silver Plume.
CBS News Colorado was able to go over the autopsy report with a professor of medical toxicology with CU and get context for the toxicology portion of the report. Andrew Monte is the expert in this story.
The report shows Ethanol, blood alcohol level, THC, and Amphetamines were in Glass's system at his time of death. Monte is quick to dismiss the alcohol as irrelevant.
"He does not have much ethanol in his system, which really suggests that he was not intoxicated with ethanol at the time he died." Glass's blood alcohol level was 0.010, far below any measurable impact according to Monte.
Next, is the THC. The amounts on the report simply show ">100 ng/mL" and ">500ng/mL" which one could take as a huge amount if it's so much the report simply considers it "more than." Monte said context is needed for those values.
"Yes, that is actually a relatively higher level compared to the legal limit," Monte explained. "The legal limit in Colorado is five nanograms per ML."
But Monte goes on to explain why that could be misleading.
"That's actually a really easy level to get to. It really can only take a hit or two off of today's joints in Colorado that have relatively high percentages of THC overall in them. So, you know, I see this being elevated, suggesting that he used it recently. This doesn't suggest that he used way more than would be typical of anybody smoking, of which 30% of our population does on a monthly basis."
Glass's parents mentioned in a press conference Tuesday that they knew their son "smoked a bit of pot," and said therefore the results of the autopsy showing as much would not surprise them. Monte was able to derive that it's likely Glass had recently used marijuana before the incident leading to his death. Still, he was transparent that it would be a difficult situation to link his drug usage to his behavior, at least as an absolute.
"I guess I would be cautious knowing what level the THC actually participated in the event that happened, right?" Monte said.
" You know, people that smoke every day don't tend to have significant psychosis or mental health abnormalities associated with a level that they're very used to, his blood levels suggest to me that it was more of a regular user. And so I don't think that we can say that THC contributed significantly to, you know, this event happening."
Monte did add afterward that marijuana does have the potential to influence negative side effects on mental health, which could have compounded his issues disclosed by his parents; depression, anxiety and ADHD.
"Cannabis has been shown to increase levels of anxiety, depression and psychosis," Monte said. "Even regular use can do that. I think it's important for users to understand that it can affect mental health."
"There were questions about this and it's still being actually suggested for the treatment of some of those mental health conditions," Monte said. "But actually, that is not borne out in the research to date. Cannabis use actually exacerbates mental health conditions, and I think it's an important thing for other cannabis users to realize."
Finally, there are amphetamine levels shown in his blood. Without any prior knowledge or medical expertise, that might sound suspect or dangerous, but Monte said it matches well with what his parents told reporters just a day ago.
"Amphetamine is used for the treatment of ADHD, and this concentration does seem to be consistent with a therapeutic dose of that." Monte said. "It's a little bit on the higher end, but certainly not outside the range of normal that we would see. You know, this does not look like it's methamphetamine. This does look like it's an amphetamine, which again, is a prescription medication."
The Glass parents explained not only was Christian diagnosed with ADHD, but was taking prescription medication for it as well (they said Ritalin, which for the record does not contain amphetamine, but Monte suggested it's possible he was actually taking Adderall, which does contain amphetamine.)
"There are different ADHD medications and amphetamine are several of them. Adderall would be the most common, actually. And so my suspicion is that he had actually taken that particular medication rather than Ritalin itself, which contains methylphenidate."
All of this matters in this case because it helps paint out the picture of the scene, and gives a speculative, potential reason for why responding officers were so adamant to get Glass out of his car (even when Colorado State Patrol had confirmed there was no real reason to do so, suggesting responding officers disengage from the scene.)
In the dispatch call between the two agencies, you can hear troopers question the reason they are there:
"My sergeant says there is no point in contacting him if he's not a harm to himself or anyone else, then no crime... suicidal or?" the unnamed CSP trooper asked.
"No, I think he's probably taken something that he can't just pass," responded a deputy or officer on the scene.
It could be assumed that if the responding officers believed he was under the influence of drugs, it would be illegal for him to operate a vehicle. That being said, Glass was not operating a vehicle when they arrived as his car was stuck, and the body camera video shows him taking the keys out of the ignition and placing them on the dash.
It's unknown how much this will factor into any potential legal battle ahead for Clear Creek County's Sheriff's Office.
