Foreword

• Author: James G. Wigmore
• Pages: 25-28

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Foreword

In the current “Information Age,” with so much information available

on the internet, it is becoming harder to separate the wheat from the

chaf‌f, validated information from anecdotal, subjective, specu lative, or

even unfounded information. Into this era, for those interested in for-

ensic toxicology, we have, among others, James Wigmore. For over thirty

years, Jim has been compiling a database of papers in forensic alcohol

toxicology in order to provide an objective record of how alcohol af‌fects

the body and behaviour, but also, more importantly, to debunk those

opinions not supported by the scientif‌ic literature. He initial ly provided

this information to hi s colleagues in the toxicology section at the Centre

of Forensic Sciences in Toronto, Ontario, to members of the Canadian

Society of Forensic Science’s Alcohol Test Committee (a national com-

mittee in Canada t hat provides advice on alcohol and alcohol testing

to Canada’s federal minister of justice), and to students of the Borken-

stein Breath Course in the United States. Following his reti rement, he

consolidated his alcohol database to the essential papers and published

them in Wigmore on Alcohol: Courtroom Alcohol Toxicology for the Medi-

colegal Professional in .

Following that publication, Jim realized that the medicolegal com-

munity needed similar d atabases on other drugs. T he obvious f‌irst

choice is cannabis. From our perspectives in Canada and the United

States, this is the dr ug of the moment, given that a number of states

have legalized its sale and use, and Canada is poised to do the same,

country-wide, sometime in .