What did toxicology tests find about fentanyl and methamphetamine levels in George Floyd on May 25 2020?
Executive summary
Toxicology testing on George Floyd's blood collected May 25, 2020, detected fentanyl at 11 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), norfentanyl at 5.6 ng/mL, and methamphetamine at 19 ng/mL; those values have been widely reported in autopsy and court documents [1] [2] [3]. Experts and official examiners who reviewed the case during trial and in public statements concluded that, while the drugs and Floyd’s heart disease were contributing conditions, they were not the primary cause of death — the Hennepin County examiner ruled the manner a homicide due to cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression [4] [5] [2].
1. What the lab numbers say: the raw toxicology findings
The antemortem blood report made public with family consent and cited in court showed fentanyl at 11 ng/mL, norfentanyl (a fentanyl metabolite) at 5.6 ng/mL, and methamphetamine at 19 ng/mL, figures repeated across news reporting and the autopsy summary [1] [3] [4]; those are the concrete laboratory concentrations that have driven later disputes over interpretation.
2. How different experts interpret those concentrations
Interpretation split along forensic lines: medical examiner reports and some experts noted that fentanyl concentrations in that range have been labeled “fatal” in other contexts and listed fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use as significant conditions on the death certificate [6] [7], while prosecution witnesses and outside toxicologists testified that the measured levels were “low” in the context of this event and would not explain the observed pattern of prolonged struggle and respiratory compromise captured on video [8] [9] [5].
3. The courtroom context: overdose theory versus restraint findings
Defense attorneys presented the toxicology to argue fentanyl and methamphetamine — and underlying heart disease — could have produced a fatal cardiac arrhythmia or overdose, framing the mixture as a “speedball” that could explain death under certain conditions [10]; prosecutors and witness experts countered that opioid deaths typically produce rapid collapse or slow peaceful respiration, contrasting that with the prolonged agitation and progressive hypoxia seen in video and explained by positional and compressive respiratory compromise [5] [2].
4. Official determinations and nuance in cause-of-death language
The Hennepin County medical examiner classified Floyd’s death as a homicide attributable to cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression while listing fentanyl intoxication, methamphetamine use, and arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease as other significant conditions — language that acknowledges the presence of drugs but places restraint as the proximate, causal mechanism [2] [4]. Independent and family-commissioned autopsies and military examiner notes reflected similar multifactorial assessments but emphasized differing weights to the drug findings [7] [6].
5. Why the numerical values alone cannot settle the dispute
Toxicology numbers are objective; their medical meaning is context-dependent. Experts called at trial explained that opioid tolerance, timing of ingestion, metabolite levels, and the dynamics of a violent restraint alter whether a given fentanyl or methamphetamine concentration would be lethal — an 11 ng/mL fentanyl concentration may be fatal for a non-tolerant person in isolation but does not, by itself, prove overdose-caused death amid extreme external compression and prolonged hypoxia [1] [8] [5]. Reporting and fact-checkers have repeatedly warned that quoting the concentrations without the forensic context misleads the public about causation [1] [4].