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Gov. Code, § 27523 · Article 2.5. Autopsy

Gov. Code, § 27523

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) A coroner may test the bodily fluid extracted during the autopsy of a deceased person to determine if any amount, including a trace amount, of xylazine was present at the time of the person’s death in either of the following circumstances:

(1) The coroner reasonably suspects that the cause of the person’s death was an accidental or intentional overdose of an opioid.

(2) The person was administered an overdose intervention drug prior to death and was unresponsive to the overdose intervention drug.

(b) If the coroner conducts a test pursuant to subdivision (a), the coroner shall report a positive result indicating the presence of xylazine to the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program managed by the Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program and provide the State Department of Public Health with a quarterly report on positive results that includes the total number of tests performed and the State File Number from the death certificate of each positive case.

(c) The department shall post the following information on the California Overdose Surveillance Dashboard located on the department’s internet website:

(1) The total number of xylazine-positive results reported to the department.

(2) The number of xylazine-positive results by county.

(3) The number of xylazine-positive overdose deaths, per 100,000 population.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Added by Stats. 2024, Ch. 684, Sec. 1. (AB 1859) Effective January 1, 2025.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV&sectionNum=27523.
Text hash
sha256 f7f4e1b833122fec127aa5c3b4af605ca7ceb790953b5072b9dc1e19456c5d88
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.