Postmortem brain tissue was provided by the University of Miami Brain Bank. Since we used publicly available pathological specimens, our study was exempt from NIH Institutional Review Board (IRB) review. Research protocols at the University of Miami were approved by the University of Miami IRB. Brain tissues were removed from autopsy cases according to criteria described by the National Association of Medical Examiners Committee on Cocaine-related Deaths [22], [23]. Samples were limited to sudden death without medical intervention or prolonged agonal periods. The postmortem interval (PMI) was less than 24 hours. Brain pH was measured as a quality control for each sample with values >6.0. For further details see [24].
