Report: Moore not ‘high’

 

A local man who died after falling from a ski lift near Lake Tahoe in late November had smoked marijuana within several hours of the incident, but did not have a high enough blood-concentration of the drug to have been intoxicated, or “high,” according to a toxicology report.

 

The report, released Jan. 24, states that tests of blood drawn from the heart of Ryan Donald Moore, formerly a resident of Santa Ynez, who died Nov. 28 following the fall at Heavenly Resort in South Lake Tahoe, show the presence of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana.

However, the tests, conducted by NMS Labs in Willow Grove, Penn., for the El Dorado County, Calif., Sheriff’s Office, showed a blood-concentration of 3.6 nanograms of delta-9 THC per milliliter of blood, or about half the concentration usually recognized by medical experts as intoxicating. There is not a fixed blood level of THC that defines legal impairment as there is in the case of alcohol intoxication. The report stated Moore’s blood-alcohol level was zero.

 

The autopsy report released by the El Dorado County Coroner, who is also the county sheriff, lists the cause of Moore’s death as bilateral parietal contusions and a depressed left parietal skull fracture.

The Coroner’s Investigation Narrative said one of Moore’s friends was with him on the ski lift at the time of the accident.

According to the report, the friend said Moore groaned and grabbed his left thigh as he leaned forward, which caused him to fall forward off of the chair about 30 feet to the rocky ground below. The friend rode to the top of the lift and advised a ski patrolman of the accident, then followed the patrol down to the site.

 

The report said it was about seven minutes after the accident before Moore could be reached by the ski patrol and that he was breathing and bleeding from his head when found. He was taken to the bottom of the run, where cardiopulmonary resuscitation was initiated.

Moore then was taken by helicopter to a hospital.

The report also states that the friend said Moore “seemed healthy and fine and not intoxicated, however that [Moore] might have smoked some marijuana earlier in the day.” The report states his death has been ruled “an accident/skiing.”

The records section of the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office received the toxicology report Dec. 11, but initially refused to release it to the Santa Ynez Valley Journal.