Prince had 'exceedingly high' level of fentanyl in his body when he died, according to toxicology report

The report says the singer's blood contained a fentanyl concentration of 67.8 micrograms per liter

The ninth album from the Minneapolis maestro was almost a six-sided monster before Warner Bros forced him to trim it down to a double album ( (Getty)

Although it was confirmed soon after his death that Prince had died of an opioid overdose, a new toxicology report obtained by the Associated Press states that the singer had what multiple experts termed “exceedingly high” levels of the painkiller fentanyl in his body at the time.

Prince died aged 57 at his home in Paisley Park in Minnesota on 21 April, 2016. In the weeks following his death, it was widely reported the musician and composer had been abusing painkillers. It was also reported Prince was scheduled to meet with an addiction specialist doctor on 22 April.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid about 75 times stronger than morphine, can cause fatalities at levels as low as three micrograms by liter or as high as 58 micrograms per liter, according to the report.

It then says that Prince’s blood contained a fentanyl concentration of 67.8 micrograms per liter. Furthermore, the level of fentanyl present in his liver was 450 micrograms by kilogram, an amount far surpassing what the report says “seem to represent overdose or fatal toxicity cases”, which is 69 micrograms per kilogram. There was also a “potentially lethal amount of fentanyl in Prince’s stomach”.

“The amount in his blood is exceedingly high, even for somebody who is a chronic pain patient on fentanyl patches,” Dr. Lewis S. Nelson, Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, told the AP, calling the fentanyl findings “a pretty clear smoking gun.”

Dr Charles McKay, president of the American College of Medical Toxicology, said the findings suggest Prince took fentanyl orally, while the levels of the drug in both his blood and liver suggest it had time to circulate before he died.

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