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Active euthanasia is legally permissible in only eight jurisdictions worldwide and may only be administered by qualified personnel following specific selection criteria. Mercy killing refers to the deliberate termination of the life of an individual suffering from a terminal chronic medical condition. Detecting both illegally performed active euthanasia and instances of mercy killing presents challenges for forensic pathologists. The presented case describes a mercy killing involving a 72-year-old woman with multiple chronic conditions who was killed by her grandson via heroin intoxication after administration of the anxiolytic alprazolam. Key findings from the external postmortem examination included a single fresh injection site on the inside of the elbow and a superficial T-shaped cut on the flexor side of the left forearm. Toxicological analyses revealed elevated blood levels of heroin metabolites, including 6-monoacetylmorphine and absence of hydroxyalprazolam, indicating an only short survival time following heroin injection. A cocaine concentration in blood was comparatively low but rather high in hair samples. Elderly individuals with multiple chronic conditions are at increased risk of becoming homicide victims. Comprehensive forensic documentation of injection sites is essential to avoid overlooking deaths caused by injection and to differentiate them from medical measures during resuscitation attempts., (© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Forensic Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Academy of Forensic Sciences.)

Hair analysis for drugs has become extensively used for forensic investigation in recent years. To best interpret hair drug content in post-mortem conditions, the extent of external contamination by biological fluids, such as blood, must be taken into account to avoid false positive results. The present study evaluated opiates and opioids incorporation into hair from blood containing different concentrations of morphine (MOR), 6-mono-acetyl morphine (6-AM), codeine (COD), dihydrocodeine (DHC), tramadol (TRA), oxycodone (OXY), methadone (MET), 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3,3- diphenyl pyrrolidine (EDDP), buprenorphine (BUP) and norbuprenorphine (NBUP). The hair strands contaminated by brief soaking into blood were stored at room temperature (RT) or at 4°C during 6 hours, 1, 3, 7 or 14 days. After decontamination by extensive washing, we show that all opiates and opioids were incorporated into hair within a few hours at RT and 4°C, without significant changes over time. The concentrations of opiates and opioids in hair reached the cut-off levels established by the Society of Hair Testing (SoHT) for therapeutic (MET, COD), or toxic or lethal (all other molecules) blood concentrations. The metabolite to parent drug concentration ratios were determined for NBUP/BUP, MOR/6-AM and EDDP/MET and could be helpful as indicators of blood external contamination., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None, (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Post-mortem toxicology constantly deals with the research of reliable alternative matrices to be applied in case of highly damaged corpses (such us carbonized, skeletonized, human remains, etc.). Teeth represent a promising alternative matrix since dental tissues are endowed by different features, resistance and stability after death., Scope: Since scant literature reported on the pharmacokinetics and mechanism of incorporation of xenobiotics into dental tissues, this pilot research aims to investigate whether in the pulp can be detected the same substances found in blood in drug related death cases. Secondly, the study is addressed to disclose the possible deposit of drugs in dental hard tissues (dentine and/or enamel), thus contributing to reconstruct the drug abuse history (timing, e.g.)., Materials and Methods: The study experimented with a novel method to separately analyse dental enamel, dentin, and pulp, applied to 10 teeth collected during autopsies of drug-related deaths along with blood and hair samples for classic toxicological analyses. Each tooth was prepared by "pulverization technique" and then analysed by gas chromatography paired with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC/HR-MS) for searching cocaine, opiates, and metabolites. The results were then compared with those obtained from blood and hair samples., Results: Preliminary results demonstrated that teeth differ from any other classic matrix (blood and hairs) since the qualitative correspondence of the detected substances between pulp and blood as well as dental hard tissues and hair suggests that they can be useful in post-mortem evaluation as a unique matrix for both acute and chronic assumptions of drugs. The mechanism of accumulation of substances in mineralized dental tissues emerged the most significant result, being influenced by the type of molecule and the method of assumption. The main limitation of this study is the limited availability of the sample and the absence of anamnestic information of the time, rates and method of drug assumption during life. Further research is necessary to systematically investigate the distribution of different substances within the different tissues of the tooth., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Abstract: Titanium dioxide is a versatile compound that is found in a variety of consumer products, medical hardware, and pharmaceuticals. Although oral and topical ingestion of this compound is common, intravenous introduction is much less common. We present three cases where significant titanium dioxide deposits were identified in liver and splenic tissue of three decedents, all of whom died of illicit drug overdose in the same geographic area and had fentanyl and its metabolites in blood on postmortem toxicologic testing. At autopsy, liver sections had a granular texture with fine white stippling grossly, and histologic examination of hepatic and splenic tissues showed scattered patches of black granular material with pink birefringence. Energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy performed on these tissues revealed the presences of clusters of titanium dioxide. Immunohistochemical staining of both the liver and spleen with CD68 confirmed the titanium dioxide clusters were within macrophages. Intravenous titanium dioxide nanoparticle elimination studies in rats suggest a time sensitive period for this elimination, with a transient period of pigment deposition between 1-58 days following injection. If a time-dependent link between titanium dioxide pigment deposition within tissues and intravenous drug use can be shown, this could be a valuable tool for Pathologists., Competing Interests: GCP had no conflicts of interest to be declared. JEK had no conflicts of interest to be declared. RFC had no conflicts of interest to be declared. There are no sources of funding to be declared., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

This scoping review intends to identify the most used analytical methods and biological samples in the post-mortem forensic toxicological analysis of cocaine and its metabolites. A scoping review was performed based on the question "What are the analytical methods and types of biological samples most frequently used to identify and quantify cocaine in post-mortem forensic toxicology?" The studies were selected from five databases and, after exclusions, the data were tabulated, analyzed, and reported. Twenty-one articles published between 2012 and 2022 were filtered from five different databases to be studied. The collected data indicate that the most used biological samples were blood and hair. The most used sample preparation technique was solid phase extraction, while the most mentioned chromatography method was liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry. This review presents and discusses the state of the art regarding methods for the detection sensitivity spectrum, why limits of quantification are so important for these methods, and what are the most suitable biological samples to be utilized in each case. Cocaine and metabolites are important in forensic toxicologic post-mortem analysis. However, there is little concern in the development of miniaturized and automated sample preparation in this field. Besides, there is not enough understanding of post-mortem redistribution, tolerance, drug-drug interactions, and pre-existing medical conditions., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The impact of contextual bias has been demonstrated repeatedly across forensic domains; however, research on this topic in forensic toxicology is very limited. In our previous study, experimental data from only one context version were compared with the actual forensic biasing casework. As a follow-up, this controlled experiment with 159 forensic toxicology practitioners was conducted, to test whether knowledge of different contextual information influenced their forensic decision-making. Participants in different context groups were tasked to identify testing strategies for carbon monoxide and opiate drugs. The results of chi-squared tests for their selections and two context groups exhibited statistically significant differences (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). These findings show contextual information can bias forensic toxicology decisions about testing strategies, despite it is a relatively objective domain in forensic science., (© 2024 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.)

Pediatric population represents the most vulnerable and at risk for unintentional poisoning, with children younger than 6 years old accounting for nearly half of poison exposures. Poisoning is a time-dependent emergency. The need to reach a scientific agreement on diagnostic protocol and treatment seems to be crucial to reduce morbidity and mortality. Starting from a buprenorphine pediatric intoxication case, this article highlights the limits and pitfalls of the traditional diagnostic approach. Diagnosis of drug intoxication was achieved after several days when an in-depth diagnostic investigation became necessary and complete forensic toxicological analyses were performed. Results evidenced an alarming lack of an unequivocal diagnostic protocol in case of suspect intoxication in structures not provided with a forensic toxicological service/unit. Collection of biological specimens according to forensic protocols at hospitalization plays a paramount role in the definitive diagnosis of intoxication. A diagnostic algorithm that focuses on medical history and biological specimen collection timing is herein proposed, in order to unify emergency approaches to the suspected poisoned child., (© 2024 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.)

A novel ring-substituted methamphetamine regioisomer, N,α,4-trimethyl phenmethylamine, was synthesized in order to study the validity of proposed structures for various mass spectrometry (MS)-derived peaks in a methamphetamine fragmentation pattern. While other research efforts have studied aspects of methamphetamine in detail, a full fragmentation study has not been reported previously. In addition to showing molecular structures represented by fragment peaks, mechanisms for selected processes are detailed. An empirically derived procedure to easily determine by simple spectral peak pattern recognition the geometry of dimethyl- or ethyl-substituted immonium ions (RRC=N+RR) where m/z=58 is outlined. These results are platform independent for electron ionization (EI) instruments, but have also proven to be helpful in explaining spectral peaks observed in spectra from ion trap systems. The spectrum for the synthesized methamphetamine regioisomer was accurately predicted using this methodology. While this approach is useful in some casework, the converse may be more useful: when an unexpected or unusual peak pattern arises in a spectrum, being able to analyze it to determine the structure of the molecule. This paper gives an analyst the means to begin such retro-synthetic analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug abuse still represents a global problem, and it is associated with an increased risk of diseases, injuries, and deaths. Cocaine (COC) and opiates are the most abused drugs and account for a significant number of fatalities. Therefore, it is important to develop methods capable of effectively identifying and quantifying these substances. The present study aims to evaluate the long-term stability of COC, ecgonine methylester (EME), benzoylecgonine (BEG), cocaethylene (COET), norcocaine (NCOC), morphine (MOR), codeine (COD) and 6-monoacetylmorphine (6-MAM) in oral fluid samples. The analytes of interest were isolated from the matrix (50 µL) using the dried saliva spots (DSS) sampling approach and were subsequently analyzed by gas chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). The parameters that could influence the stability of the target compounds were studied, and these were storage temperature, light, use of preservatives (and respective concentrations), and time. The effects of each parameter were evaluated using the design of experiments (DOE) approach. The stability of the target analytes was improved when the DSS were stored at room temperature, in the presence of light and using 1% sodium fluoride. The best conditions were then adopted for the DSS storage and long-term stability was assessed. COD was only stable for 1 day, EME was stable for 3 days, COC, COET, NCOC and 6-MAM were stable for 7 days, MOR for 14 days and BEG remained stable throughout the study (136 days). This is the first study that evaluates the stability of these compounds in oral fluid samples after application in DSS cards, and optimizes the conditions in order to improve their stability.

Fentanyl and fentalogs' intake as drugs of abuse is experiencing a great increase in recent years. For this reason, there are more and more cases in which it is important to recognize and quantify these molecules and related metabolites in biological matrices. Oral fluid (OF) is often used to find out if a subject has recently used a psychoactive substance and if, therefore, the person is still under the effect of psychotropics. Given its difficulty in handling, good sample preparation and the development of instrumental methods for analysis are essential. In this work, an analytical method is proposed for the simultaneous determination of 25 analytes, including fentanyl, several derivatives and metabolites. OF was collected by means of passive drool; sample pretreatment was developed in order to be fast, simple and possibly semi-automated by exploiting microextraction on packed sorbent (MEPS). The analysis was performed by means of LC-HRMS/MS obtaining good identification and quantification of all the analytes in less than 10 min. The proposed method was fully validated according to the Scientific Working Group for Forensic Toxicology (SWGTOX) international guidelines. Good results were obtained in terms of recoveries, matrix effect and sensitivity, showing that this method could represent a useful tool in forensic toxicology. The presented method was successfully applied to the analysis of proficiency test samples.

Aims: A discrete experiment in wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) timed to coincide with the census was used to investigate the spatial, temporal and socioeconomic patterns of illicit drug consumption in Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Canterbury., Methods: For seven consecutive days over census week (6 March 2018), wastewater was sampled from seven wastewater treatment plants and analysed for methamphetamine, cocaine (as benzoylecgonine) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). Detailed sewer catchment maps were developed and, together with the data, were used to analyse drug consumption., Results: Methamphetamine (mean 22.9 ± 9.9 doses/day/1000 people) was the most consumed drug, followed by MDMA (mean 1.7 ± 1.5 doses/day/1000 people) and cocaine (mean 0.5 ± 0.3 doses/day/1000 people). Methamphetamine consumption (and to a lesser extent MDMA) was high compared to that reported for Western nations, while cocaine consumption was extremely low. Cocaine and MDMA consumption were higher in cities compared to towns. In contrast, methamphetamine was typically higher in towns. Cocaine and MDMA were consumed more at weekends. Methamphetamine use was more consistent throughout the week. MDMA and cocaine were correlated with socioeconomic advantage, whereas methamphetamine was correlated with disadvantage., Conclusions: This paper contextualises illicit drug use in three New Zealand regions containing 18.3% of the national population and confirms the pervasiveness of methamphetamine consumption in New Zealand towns. This work demonstrates how WBE can be used to explore the socioeconomic dimensions of drug use when duly combined with other data sources like censuses., Competing Interests: Nil.

Drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) and drug-facilitated crime (DFC) constitute a mode of violence that is generally unknown to the population and may go unnoticed by health professionals. The aim of this systematic review was to analyze the victims of DFC, compiling their sociodemographic characteristics, the toxic substances used and their biological matrices and modes of action, in order to identify the substances that are commonly put to criminal use. The aim would be to establish political and health strategies that inform and warn people about possible criminal social behaviors consequent danger to health. This systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. Alcohol, benzodiazepines and cocaine were among the most commonly detected substances. In most of the hospitals, immunoassays, liquid chromatography (LC-MS), or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analyses were used to identify the substances, while the most frequently used biological matrices were blood and urine. From a judicial point of view, the instrumental protocols and techniques followed for the detection of toxics in different biological matrices must guarantee the reliability and validity of the results for use in a court of law. The recommendations of international organizations should be followed and must be called upon to strengthen their respective national laws against this chemical submission (CS) phenomenon., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.)

In forensic contexts of advanced decomposition, when conventional matrices are no longer available for toxicological analyses, finding alternative matrices is necessary. The skeleton, which is fundamental for anthropologists and geneticists, could be useful also for toxicological purposes. The present study aims to examine what kind of information toxicological analysis performed on bones (the cranium and the ribs) in different states of preservation could provide to the forensic practitioner. Thirty cadavers with known pharmacological history, subjected to forensic autopsy at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Milan, were selected. Rib and cranium samples were collected from each body and separated into two parts in order to create two different states of preservation: One was cleaned from soft tissues and analyzed as a well-preserved bone sample; the other was submitted to a long maceration process, simulating complete skeletonization. All specimens were then processed with accelerated solvent extraction and the eluates analyzed using Q-Exactive™ Orbitrap™ Mass Spectrometer. The analysis of blood and skeletal matrices showed positive results for the tested substances in 63% of cases, mainly benzodiazepines, antidepressants, and drug abuse. Significant Pearson correlations were observed between non-macerated vs. macerated bone samples: r = 0.79 for rib samples, r = 0.61 for cranium samples, and r = 0.69 for all bone samples. As a consequence, the positive results confirm the potential of the bone tissue as an alternative matrix in forensic toxicology, even in cases of extremely decomposed bodies. This study also highlighted important elements for reconstructing the biological profile in cases of forensic anthropological concern., (© 2020 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.)

There is an increasing challenge to prevent illicit drug smuggling across borders and seaports. However, the existing techniques in-and-of-themselves are not sufficient to identify the illicit drugs rapidly and accurately. In the present study, combining nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) spectroscopy and the element (or isotope) ratio approach, we present a novel inspection method that can simultaneously reveal the elemental (or isotopic) composition of the illicit drugs, such as widely abused methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, ketamine and morphine. In the NRF spectroscopy, the nuclei are excited by the induced photon beam, and measurement of the characteristic energies of the emitted [Formula: see text] rays from the distinct energy levels in the excited nuclei provides "fingerprints" of the interested elements in the illicit drugs. The element ratio approach is further used to identify drug elemental composition in principle. Monte Carlo simulations show that four NRF peaks from the nuclei [Formula: see text]C, [Formula: see text]N and [Formula: see text]O can be detected with high significance of 7-24[Formula: see text] using an induced photon beam flux of [Formula: see text]. The ratio of [Formula: see text]/[Formula: see text] and/or [Formula: see text]/[Formula: see text] for illicit drugs inspected are then extracted using the element ratio approach. It is found that the present results of simulations are in good agreement with the theoretical calculations. The feasibility to detect the illicit drugs, inside the 15-mm-thick iron shielding, or surrounded by thin benign materials, is also discussed. It is indicated that, using the state-of-the-art [Formula: see text]-ray source of high intensity and energy-tunability, the proposed method has a great potential for identifying drugs and explosives in a realistic measurement time.

Methadone (MTD) is a synthetic analgesic drug used for treating opioid dependence and effectively used clinically for patients with severe pain. The abuse of MTD may lead to poisoning, disorder in the central nervous system and even death. The regular monitoring of MTD in biological matrices including serum, plasma and urine samples is an effective way to control abuse of MTD. In this manner, the selection of analytical monitoring of MTD in biological matrices is of paramount importance. This study was conducted to review high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques carried out on MTD and its main metabolite 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3,3-diphenylpyrrolidine (EDDP) in the biological samples during 2015-June 2021.

Background and Objectives: Opioid-related overdose deaths in North America have increased drastically, partially due to the increased prevalence of illicitly manufactured fentanyl. The current study sought to assess the prevalence and intentionality of fentanyl use among individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD)., Methods: For this secondary analysis (study 1) we screened a total of 1118 urine samples from 316 participants with OUD from 2016 to 2019. Fentanyl knowledge and intentionality of use were assessed in a separate OUD sample (study 2; N = 33)., Results: In study 1, 34.6% of all urine samples tested positive for fentanyl. Overall, 149 (47.2%) participants provided more than or equal to one urine sample that tested fentanyl-positive, and 93 (29.4%) provided more than or equal to two fentanyl-positive samples. The number of fentanyl-positive samples, relative to the number of samples tested each year, increased by 330% from year 1 to 3. Study 2 found all participants had pre-existing knowledge that drugs may be adulterated with fentanyl, yet 67% were surprised by their own fentanyl-positive test result., Discussion and Conclusions: Like previous studies, our data indicate the high prevalence of fentanyl exposure and low perception of fentanyl-related risk among individuals with OUD, respectively, suggesting that opioid overdose harm reduction efforts may need to focus more on drug users' understanding of risks related to fentanyl use and adulteration of drugs., Scientific Significance: The current studies provide longitudinal data on fentanyl exposure prevalence and risk perception that is uniquely granular by assessing OUD treatment status, and by identifying potential associations between fentanyl exposure with the presence of other drug use and nonfatal overdose. (Am J Addict 2021;30:65-71)., (© 2020 American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.)

A method for separation and determination of 32 fentanyl-related substances, including seven sets of isomeric fentanyl analogues, was developed using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry. The collision energy, chromatographic column, and mobile phase were optimized. All compounds were efficiently flushed out of a universal C18 column with a soft gradient consisting of solvent A (2 mM ammonium formate and 0.1% formic acid in water) and solvent B (2 mM ammonium formate and 0.1% formic acid in methanol) in only 20 min, achieving excellent resolution. Detection and analysis were carried out simultaneously in the positive ion mode using the full scan and data-dependent tandem mass spectrometry modes with a normalized collision energy of 40. The method was validated in terms of limit of detection, limit of quantification, linearity, accuracy, and precision. For all fentanyl-related substances, the limit of detection (0.5 ng/mL) and limit of quantification (1 ng/mL) were adequate for screening and quantification in daily drug control. Calibration curves for all compounds were established in the range of 1-500 ng/mL. The intra- and interday precision (RSD%) were within 0.4-2.3 and 0.7-2.7%, respectively. The accuracy ranged from 99 to 106%. The method was applied to analyze seized drug samples., (© 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Aerodynamic thermal breakup droplet ionization (ATBDI) in mass spectrometric drug analysis is considered. Cocaine, heroin, and the main alkaloids of opium (morphine, codeine, papaverine) were chosen as the test compounds. The principles of ATBDI ionization are discussed. The dependences of the intensities of the peaks of the target compounds on temperature during ATBDI ionization are also considered. In some cases, a comparison of ATBDI ionization with electrospray ionization (ESI) was performed. In addition, a comparison of methods is demonstrated by the analysis of confiscated opium that was provided by the local police department. Five major alkaloids are found in opium: morphine, codeine, thebaine, papaverine, and narcotine.

Fentanyl and its analogues play a major role in the current opioid epidemic. In particular, these highly potent opioids have become a health hazard due to their use as additives in street drugs. Consequently, rapid on-site procedures for the analysis of this class of seized drugs are needed, especially considering the reported backlog of drug samples, which must undergo identification and confirmation tests to validate the presence of an illicit substance. Paper based devices are cheap sampling and analysis vehicles that have been shown capable of allowing rapid identification and confirmation of drugs of abuse. Modifying paper substrates by imprinting nanoparticles enables surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) as well as a second analysis from the same substrate, namely paper spray ionization mass spectrometry. While such a procedure has been described for laboratory use, these illicit drug samples are typically collected in the field and this is where testing should be done. We combine paper SERS and paper spray MS on field-portable and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices for the rapid and low-cost identification and confirmation of fentanyl and its analogues, enabling in situ analysis at the point of seizure of suspect samples. The commercial nature of both instruments moves this technology from the academic realm to a setting where the criminal justice system can realistically utilize it. The capabilities of this single-substrate dual-analyzer technique are further examined by sampling a variety of surfaces of forensic interest.

A method using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to simultaneously quantify amphetamines, opiates, ketamine, cocaine, and metabolites in human hair is described. Hair samples (50 mg) were extracted with methanol utilizing cryogenic grinding. Calibration curves for all the analytes were established in the concentration range 0.05-10 ng/mg. The recoveries were above 72%, except for AMP at the limit of quantification (LOQ), which was 48%. The accuracies were within ±20% at the LOQ (0.05 ng/mg) and between -11% and 13.3% at 0.3 and 9.5 ng/mg, respectively. The intraday and interday precisions were within 19.6% and 19.8%, respectively. A proficiency test was applied to the validated method with z-scores within ±2, demonstrating the accuracy of the method for the determination of drugs of abuse in the hair of individuals suspected of abusing drugs. The hair concentration ranges, means, and medians are summarized for abused drugs in 158 authentic cases., (© 2019 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.)

The purpose of the study is to analyze certain aspects of the legal regulation of the examination of medicines containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, or precursors in the field of customs. To achieve this goal, we analyzed the number of customs examinations carried out, new narcotic compounds identified for the first time. An analysis of the understanding of the definition "examination" and "customs examination" in the scientific literature. Two directions of the implementation of expert examinations of medicines containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, or precursors in the field of customs were identified, its concept was defined. It is proposed to attribute the investigative examination to the methods of customs control. It was found out that this examination is not a forensic examination, and it can be attributed to a special class of examinations, since it has characteristic features inherent only in it: subject, tasks, objects, and research methods. Seven stages of the implementation of expert examinations of medicinal products containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, or precursors during customs control are highlighted and their procedural order is analyzed.

This study positions the fabricated Pt/Hg-supported phospholipid sensor element in the context of more conventional biomembrane-based screening platforms. The technology has been used together with immobilised artificial membrane (IAM) chromatography and COSMOmic simulation methods to screen the interaction of a series of low molecular weight narcotic organic compounds in water with phosphatidylcholine (PC) membranes. For these chemicals it is shown that toxicity to aquatic species is related to compound hydrophobicity which is associated with compound accumulation in the phospholipid membrane as modelled by IAM chromatography measurements and COSMOmic simulations. In contrast, the Hg-supported dioleoyl phosphatidylcholine (DOPC) sensor element records membrane damage/modification which is indirectly related to general toxicity and directly related to compound structure. Electrochemical limit of detection (LoD) values depend on molecular structure and range from 20 μmolL -1 for substituted phenols to 23 mmolL -1 for aliphatics. Rapid cyclic voltammetry (RCV) "fingerprints" showed that the major structural classes of compounds: alkyl/chlorobenzenes, substituted phenols, quaternary ammonium compounds and neutral amines interacted distinctively with the DOPC on Hg and that these observations correlated with and supported those predicted by the COSMOmic simulations of the compound/DMPC association. In addition, the compatibility of the electrochemical and COSMOmic methods validates the electrochemical device as a meaningful high throughput technology to screen compounds in water and report on the mechanistic details of their interaction with phospholipid layers., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Currently, hair straightening has become a regular hair treatment for women but likewise for men. Several studies have shown that thermal straightening has an influence on the concentration of ethyl glucuronide and of drugs of abuse content in hair. Heat treatment of hair may decrease concentrations of cocaine (COC) and of cocaethylene (CE) in hair and increase concentrations of benzoylecgonine (BZE). The goal of this study was to evaluate the influence of thermal straightening on anhydroecgonine methyl ester (AEME), a known cocaine smoking marker, in hair., Method: 42 positive COC hair samples were treated in vitro with iron plates heated to 200°C. During this treatment one lock of hair was put sequentially 30 times in contact with a hair straightener during 2s, the other lock was not treated. The hair samples were analyzed by a validated GC/MS method for AEME, COC and its metabolites BZE, norcocaine (NC), ecgonine methyl ester (EME) and CE., Results: After treatment, a median increase of concentrations was observed for AEME (110.3%) and BZE (27.6%) whereas a median decrease was found for COC (56.9%), NC (46.7%), EME (33.3%) and CE (41.7%). The median BZE/COC ratio of 0.6 in not treated hair increased to 1.5 in treated hair., Conclusion: Regarding our in vitro results, AEME may be produced by thermal hair straightening. Therefore, the presence of AEME in hair should not be used as an irrefutable prove of cocaine smoking. Our study shows that for the interpretation of AEME results in hair, potential heat treatment of hair should be considered. A ratio BZE/COC higher 1 appears to be a good marker to identify thermal treatment of hair before collection. Finally, thermal straightening should be documented during hair collection and should also be considered for the interpretation of COC results in hair., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Stomach content is a matrix often applied in post-mortem cases. It is especially important in oral intoxication cases. The main advantages are the usually high concentration of analytes and the lack of biotransformation process. Still, even with extensive sample preparation, the final extract is not always suitable for analysis. The aim of this study was to develop an alternative method using QuEChERS for the extraction of drugs and pesticides from postmortem stomach content. Sample preparation started acetonitrile with 1% of acetic acid and QuEChERS salts. Later, the initial extract was cleaned-up using the EMR-Lipid sorbent. Residual water was withdrawn with MgSO 4 /NaCl in the third step and a final step with MgSO 4 . Vigorous shaken and centrifugation was performed after each step. The final supernatant was evaporated, re-suspended, and injected into GC-MS in full scan mode. This approach was successfully applied to stomach content, resulting in clean extracts, with low lipid levels. The method was able to detected target drugs and pesticides (cocaine, tramadol, diazepam, amytriptiline, phenobarbital, prochloraz, diazinon, heptachlor, permethrin, malathion and carbaryl) at the limit of detection of 0.1 mg/g or 0.1 mg/L. Recovery was over 70% for the majority of analytes, precision and accuracy was within acceptable range. The method was also applied to real forensic cases and carbofuran, terbuphos and fluoxetine was detected likewise. This work demonstrates that this method can provide an effective clean-up in high lipids samples such as stomach content, and can be used to analyze of pesticides and drugs in forensic cases., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In order to investigate the influence of pigmentation on the incorporation of drugs into hair, time-course changes in drug distribution along non-pigmented (white) hairs as well as pigmented (black) hairs plucked from the same subject was observed following single administrations of two basic drugs with different properties, zolpidem and methoxyphenamine. These drugs in 1-mm sections of single hair specimens were each determined by a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric procedure. During the early stage (12-36 h) after intake, for black hairs, both drugs were detected over the entire area of hair root (4-5 mm in length), in which notable concentration of these drugs in the hair bulb (0-1-mm segment from the bottom of hair root, Region 1) and lower concentrations in the upper dermis zone (1-2-mm to 3-4-mm or to 4-5-mm segments, Region 2) were commonly observed. Meanwhile, for white hairs, high drug concentrations in Region 1 as detected in black hairs were not observed although only small amounts of these drugs were detected over Region 2. Subsequent time-course changes in the concentration of drugs in hair demonstrated that the drugs once incorporated into white hair via Region 2 decreased gradually over the period from 24 h to 35 days after intake, but those of black hairs remained almost unchanged. These findings revealed here suggest that hair pigments have two important roles in the distribution of drugs: (1) incorporation of drugs into hair via Region 1, and (2) retention of already incorporated drugs in the hair tissue. These findings would be useful for discussing individual drug-use history based on hair analysis in the forensic fields., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Brain tissue is a useful supplement to blood in postmortem investigations, but reference concentrations are scarce for many opioids. Heroin cases may be difficult to distinguish from morphine cases as heroin and its metabolites are rapidly degraded. We present concentrations from brain and blood and brain-blood ratios of 98 cases where morphine was quantified. These cases were grouped according to the cause of death: A: The compound was solely assumed to have caused a fatal intoxication. B: The compound presumably contributed to a fatal outcome in combination with other drugs, alcohol or disease. C: The compound was not regarded to be related to the cause of death. The cases were further classified as heroin cases if 6-acetyl-morphine or noscapine were detected. The analyses were carried out using solid-phase extraction or protein precipitation followed by ultra high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The average brain-blood ratios of morphine were 1.2 and 1.8 for 69 morphine and 29 heroin cases, respectively. Differences in the brain-blood ratios were found for cases where heroin and morphine were involved in the cause of death, either in combination or on its own (P<0.001 and P=0.004, respectively). However, the overlap between morphine and heroin cases precludes the use of the brain-blood ratio to distinguish heroin from morphine intake. Morphine-6-glucuronide and 6-acetyl-morphine were quantified in brain and blood in a subset of the samples, yielding median brain-blood ratios of 5.1 and 8.3, respectively. The brain concentrations may aid the toxicological investigation in cases where heroin or morphine intoxications are suspected, but blood is not available., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: The purpose of the work is to show and compare three reported cases of Excited Delirium Syndrome, which happened in Warsaw, Poland, from 2013 to 2017. We compared the results of three autopsy and toxicological findings of unexpectedly deceased males and the circumstances of their death, based on the police records., Results: There were no significant findings of chronic diseases or multiple traumas leading us to the clear explanation of cause of death. We noted a rapid cardiopulmonary failure accompanied by drug abuse in all three cases, that happened following a stressful stimulus, evoked by a police restraint in prone position. All patients resembled similar external characteristics and BMI and had used drugs before death., Conclusion: A lack of the autopsy findings suggests the Excited Delirium Syndrome as a cause of death. The syndrome may be diagnosed after death, following the definition of exclusion of other somatic causes of death, preceded by symptoms during a stressful event. The syndrome occurs in overweight males, abusing especially stimulants. The physical restraint plays an important role in the initiation of the symptoms. The pathophysiology of the syndrome is poorly understood, but some theories underline dopamine transporters stimulation. To this day, there are no published Excited Delirium guidelines for forensic specialists or pathologists., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.)

Hair, larvae and cardiac muscle, the only biological samples present on a skeletonized human body found in a rural area, were used for forensic toxicological analyses in order to determine possible causes of death. Since no information about the victim or the circumstances of death was available (except for the place where the corpse was found, known to be a gathering place for drug addicts), the first approach for the analysis of non-conventional matrices involved the screening of different classes of active principles, using a chemiluminescence-based screening assay designed for whole blood. The immunoassay test results showed positivity to amphetamines, cocaine and opiates on water/methanol extract from cardiac tissue, larvae and hair samples. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analyses confirmed the immunoassay results, except for amphetamines. The minimal sample preparation (hydration and extraction in an ultrasonic bath), the reduced sample volume required for the analyses, together with the correctness of results as confirmed by GC/MS, showed the suitability of the screening test for forensic applications on non-conventional matrices. Quantitative analyses in GC/MS allowed the cause of death to be ascertained on the basis of the ratio between parent drugs and metabolites., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The greatest challenge for European drug policies is how to effectively respond to the dynamic and constantly changing market for new psychoactive substances (NPS). Even small modifications in the chemical structure of substances often allow circumventing existing laws. Also in prison, the consumption of NPS is rising and there is growing evidence that NPS are responsible for a large share of drug-related problems. Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is the technique of choice for trace analysis of illicit drugs or explosives at security points, for example airports. Currently, databases of the reduced mobility (K 0 ) values are limited to classical drugs and should be completed with data of emerging NPS. In this article, K 0 values, LODs (0.7-3.6 ng) and drift times of 25 synthetic cannabinoids were evaluated. The data were added to existing databases of IMS which were then applied for fast screening in prison. The detection capability of the portable IMS technique was evaluated by the determination of intra-day (0.089%) and inter-day precision (0.004% to 0.14%), systematic error (0.19%), and separation capability for structurally related NPS. The applicability of the methodology was demonstrated by the successful analysis of 12 different pieces of paper impregnated with synthetic cannabinoids, 7 different cosmetics, and 5 food samples (liquids), spiked with a mixture of narcotic drugs and a synthetic cannabinoid. In addition, 14 herbal mixtures and 36 different casework samples from prisons were analyzed provided by the State Office of Criminal Investigation Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany)., (© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Background: Detection of heroin use is among the major tasks for drug testing and can be best performed by using 6-acetylmorphine as the target analyte. This study was performed to document analytical findings in oral fluid after OF heroin intake., Methods: The samples were from routine drug testing of patients in substitution treatment. The analytical investigation was made with a forensic accredited liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method., Results: Out of 2814 samples, from 1875 patients, sent for routine drug testing, 406 contained one or more opiate in the drug screening when applying a cutoff limit of 1 ng/mL neat OF. Out of these 406, 314 had a measured 6-AM concentration in neat OF ≥ 1 ng/mL. The study demonstrated that 6-AM is a viable parameter in oral fluid drug testing with an about 80% sensitivity compared to using morphine and codeine as biomarkers. An additional value of using 6-AM is the confidence in concluding a heroin intake. The 6-AM concentrations varied between 1 and >1000 ng/mL, with a median value of 18.6 ng/mL. Heroin was measured in 35 samples with a median value of 0.72 ng/mL. The positive rate for opiates in urine and OF drug testing was the same, 13.5%, in similar populations of patients., Conclusions: 6-AM is a preferred parameter in OF drug testing for monitoring heroin use and makes OF drug testing for detecting heroin use more effective than urine drug testing when using highly sensitive mass spectrometry methods., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: In South Africa, violence-related injury and mortality contributes highly to the nation's burden of injury. Drug abuse, which is also reported to be rife across the county, has been associated with violence, resulting injury, and death. While post-mortem toxicological investigations are comprehensive and routine in violent fatalities internationally; this is not currently the case in South Africa., Objectives: To conduct a post-mortem toxicological investigation on a cohort of violent fatalities in the West-Metropole of Cape Town, Western Cape., Methods: The study included a prospective toxicological analysis and a retrospective review of the corresponding blood alcohol results on a small cohort of victims of violent death (whether homicidal, non-overdose suicidal, or accidental) admitted to the Salt River State Mortuary in Cape Town. Biological specimens were collected from the victims following informed consent from the next-of-kin, and a targeted screening approach using liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry was used for the qualitative toxicology analysis. At the Forensic Chemistry National Laboratory, blood alcohol testing was conducted using a headspace gas chromatography with flame ionisation detector according to national standards. Data was analysed with regards to demographics, circumstances of death, and toxicological results., Results: Consent was obtained for 104 violent death cases, autopsied between August-October 2015, most were male victims of homicide (n = 92, 88%). Volatiles analysis for ethanol was performed on 98% of cases, with 41% testing positive (>0.01 g/100 mL). Other drugs of abuse were detected in 63 (61%) cases and more than one substance were present in 51 (49%) cases. The most commonly detected substances were combinations of methamphetamine, diphenhydramine, and methaqualone., Conclusions: A high prevalence of drugs of abuse was identified in a cohort of victims of violent death. Objective drug trends observed were consistent with national self-reported rehabilitation centre data and research on self-reported drug user. This study was limited by the sampling strategy, including challenges associated with obtaining consent and the rapid turnover of violent fatalities. Despite this - and to the authors' knowledge - this study provided the first prospective post-mortem toxicological investigation into violent death in South Africa. Contextually, it highlights the need for routine and comprehensive toxicology in these cases to strengthen research and service provision, so as to better understand the role of drugs in violent death., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.)

Background: Hair samples from children are frequently analyzed in order to characterize their endangerment in a drug using environment. However, the interpretation of the results remains difficult because of lacking data for comparison. In this study, hair samples from families with drug consuming parents were analyzed for illegal and selected medical drugs and the results were evaluated concerning a relationship between findings of parents and children depending on kind of drug, age and gender of children as well as maternal or paternal drug concentrations in hair., Methods: In an ongoing social supporting project for families with underage children and drug consuming parents, hair samples were analyzed since 2011 for methadone, opiates and opioid analgesics, cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy, cannabinoids and benzodiazepines by LC-MS/MS with LOQs ≈ 0.01 ng/mg. From the data pool of more than 1300 individuals, 100 families with results for one or both parents and one to five children, 30 families with results only for both parents, and 11 families with results only for 2-4 children were selected. Fifty eight of these 141 families were repeatedly tested (altogether 251 family tests)., Results: One to 5 drugs were detected in 239 (95.2%) of the family tests with highest occurrence of cocaine (79.7%) and THC (50.2%). According to the concentrations of the tested persons, the most probable drug users were the mother (25%), the father (24%), both parents (16%), or were not tested (30%). Within the families, there was an agreement of the detected drugs between parents and children of 47.8%, between both parents of 36.1%, and between children of 42.3%. For parents with hair concentrations in the typical range of regular drug use, the drug was detected in children hair with the following frequency: methadone 65.5%, heroin (6-AM) 63.6%, cocaine 92.1%, amphetamine 80%, MDMA 42.9% and THC 67.4% with higher percentage for younger children. The agreement for medical drugs (benzodiazepines 7.7%, synthetic opioids 8.7%, diphenhydramine 7.1%) was much lower suggesting voluntary administration or intake. Despite the strong variation of the data, clear trends were found that the child/parent drug concentration ratio decreases with increasing children age and is higher for boys than for girls., Conclusion: The comparison of hair results within families gives a deeper insight in the drug situation, often enables the identification of the drug user and is helpful for social and legal decisions to improve the conditions of the children., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The sample preparation procedures within undirected chemical-toxicological urine analysis for GCMS and HPLC-MS/MS methods are presented. These methods are intended for analytical diagnosis of the presence of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their metabolites in humans.

The number of persons arrested in Japan for drug-related offenses in 2016 increased from the previous year. Especially, cannabis offenses have increased since 2014, with more than 2000 persons arrested in 2015. As a feature of the year 2017, we analyzed many cannabis concentrates, called "Cannabis wax", in the process of analyzing cannabis in the Narcotics Control Department. "Cannabis wax" refers to concentrates of the hallucinogenic component of cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Increasingly, cannabis wax containing 50 times higher THC than general dry cannabis has been confiscated. More than 2300 compounds are currently regulated as new psychoactive substances in Japan. In a recent trend, there is an increasing number of cases in which a wide range of regulated substances have been seized and confiscated, ranging from those that have been abused for a long time, to those that are newly regulated. Many structural isomers are present among these, and we are constantly developing techniques for the rapid and accurate analysis of these compounds.

Purpose: To determine and discuss common weaknesses and errors in case-control studies on the association between drug use and road traffic crash injury among drivers and recommend improvements for future studies., Methods: A search for case-control studies published between 2000 and 2016 was performed using PubMed and other databases in addition to manual search. The used methodologies were compared with requirements and recommendations for case-control studies as well as current knowledge on the interpretation of drug concentrations in biological samples., Results: Seventeen studies were identified. The major difficulties in the studies were related to likely selection bias, information bias, and confounding. In some studies, the definition of drug exposure was different for controls than for cases, generating potentially serious errors in the odds ratio estimations. Other weaknesses include lacking explanation of the assessment of drug exposure, missing covariates, lacking description of statistical methods, and lack of discussion of bias and confounding., Conclusions: Many of the observed challenges and weaknesses can be overcome or reduced. Recommendations for future studies are presented., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Violence is a dreadful phenomenon spread throughout the world, resulting in unfortunate events that can ultimately cause death. It is known that some countries play a much worrying role in this scenario than others. Brazil is one of them. The present work has focused on identifying the use of cocaine in 105 postmortem cases arriving at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Sao Paulo (IML-SP), the largest Brazilian city. Both blood and hair samples have been analyzed through ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) in order to distinguish between recent or chronic cocaine use. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the proportion of cocaine use amongst violent individuals whose violence has ultimately led to their death. In order to do so, two previous methods, validated in-house, based on methanolic extraction for hair and protein precipitation for blood, have been used for this purpose and the final residue was analyzed through UPLC-ESI-MS/MS system. When looking at the demographics from the 105 postmortem cases analyzed, the results have shown the most critical age range to be between 18 and 25 years old and the least frequent between 37 and 45 years old. Gender wise, a rather extreme difference was found as 97 of the individuals were men and finally, considering the manner of death, the four-category criteria established appear to be fairly similar with 34 cases related to general violence and risk behavior, 26 to drug abuse suspicion, 23 to homicide resulting from opposition to police intervention and 22 to possible suicide., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.)

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) was applied to estimate the consumption of twelve narcotics within a Southwestern U.S. university campus. Seven consecutive 24-hour composite raw wastewater samples (n = 80) were obtained once per month from sampling locations capturing >95% of campus-generated wastewater. Samples were analyzed for indicators of consumption of morphine, codeine, oxycodone, heroin, fentanyl, methadone, buprenorphine, amphetamine, methylphenidate, alprazolam, cocaine, and MDMA using LC-MS/MS. Eleven indicator compounds (oxycodone, codeine, norcodeine, 6-acetylmorphine, EDDP, amphetamine, alprazolam, alpha-hydroxyalprazolam, cocaine, benzoylecgonine, and MDMA) occurred at 100% detection frequency across the study, followed by morphine-3-glucuronide (98%), noroxycodone (95%), methylphenidate (90%), heroin (7%), norfentanyl (7%), and fentanyl (5%). Estimates of average narcotics consumption ranked as follows in units of mg/day/1000 persons: heroin (474 ± 32), cocaine (551 ± 49), amphetamine (256 ± 12), methylphenidate (236 ± 28), methadone (72 ± 8), oxycodone (80 ± 6), alprazolam (60 ± 2), MDMA (88 ± 35), codeine (50 ± 4), and morphine (18 ± 3). This campus-based WBE study yielded baseline data on 12 narcotics for a U.S. campus and demonstrated for the first time the feasibility of detecting the fentanyl metabolite norfentanyl in this setting., (Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The causes of high anion gap metabolic acidosis (HAGMA) are well described in the literature. However, sometimes more frequent causes of HAGMA cannot explain its occurrence.In the case of HAGMA and severe neurological depression in the absence of other causes of HAGMA, clinicians should consider an intoxication with gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) as a possible cause.GHB is endogenous to the mammalian central nervous system (CNS). Synthetic GHB was initially used as an anesthetic but is now only licensed for medical use in a limited number of indications such as the treatment of narcolepsy. Because of its euphoric effects, it became popular for recreational use under the street names: Liquid Ecstasy, Georgia Home Boy, and Liquid G.We describe the clinical case of a patient who suffered from severe neurological depression and HAGMA.

Hair is a mainstream specimen used in forensic toxicology to determine drug use and exposure. However, the interpretation of an analytical hair result can be complicated by the presence of external drug contamination. Decontamination procedures are included in hair analysis methods to remove external contamination, but the capacity of these washes to completely remove contamination for all drugs is controversial. It is evident that there is no consensus on the most effective decontamination procedure, nor can decontamination procedures consistently remove external drug contamination to less than reportable cut-offs for all analytes. ∆ 9 -tetrahydrocannabinol deposited from cannabis smoke is mostly removed by organic solvents, whereas ionizable drugs are more effectively removed by an aqueous wash. Organizations such as the Society of Hair Testing recommend a hair decontamination procedure should include both an organic and aqueous washing step, which is in accordance with the reviewed literature. Studies involving a systematic evaluation of various solvents have shown that the most effective organic solvent was methanol and the most effective aqueous solvent contained sodium dodecyl sulfate detergent. If future systematic studies can demonstrate similar findings, a consensus on the most effective decontamination procedure for forensic hair analysis may be established.

Methamphetamine (MA) is an illicit stimulant that affects the central nervous system. Cytochrome P450 2D6 (CYP2D6) plays an important role in MA metabolism. Numerous allelic variants confer substantial variation in CYP2D6 activity among individuals. In the present study, we examined the frequencies of CYP2D6 alleles, including CYP2D6*1, *2, *4, *5, *10, *14A, *14B, *18, and *36, and multiplication, in 82 forensic autopsy cases of MA abusers and 567 autopsy cases in which MA was not detected (controls). Ultrarapid metabolizer (UM), extensive metabolizer (EM), intermediate metabolizer (IM), and poor metabolizer (PM) phenotypes were predicted from CYP2D6 genotypes. Of MA abusers, 64 subjects were predicted to be EM, 17 were IM, and 1 was UM. No MA abuser had the predicted PM phenotype. No significant differences in CYP2D6 phenotype frequencies were found between MA abusers and controls. MA and amphetamine (AMP) concentrations were measured in the right heart blood, left heart blood, peripheral external iliac blood, urine, pericardial fluid, and bone marrow of MA abusers. MA concentrations in urine and bone marrow were significantly higher in IM than in EM. AMP concentration was not associated with CYP2D6 phenotype in any body fluid. These results suggest that the MA concentration in body fluids is influenced by CYP2D6 phenotypes in the Japanese population., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) is a worldwide problem with potentially major judiciary and life-threatening consequences. Up to now, only classical drugs of abuse (DOA) are tested for DUID detection. A challenging issue for drafting up-dated international drug policies is to take into account the recent and expanding new psychoactive substances (NPS) market. NPS consist in various narcotic or psychotropic drugs, most of them having a "legal" status, that replicate chemical structures and/or pharmacological effects of classical DOA. Although it is obvious that NPS can lead to impaired driving, the prevalence of NPS use in a DUID context is unknown since the applied roadside screening tests are not yet adapted for these compounds., Methods: Between January and December 2016, a total of 391 oral fluid specimens were obtained from used roadside immunochemical test devices for DOA (Drugwipe-5S ® device). These specimens were analyzed using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry and high resolution mass spectrometry., Results: NPS (mainly cathinone derivatives) were detected in 33 out of the 391 oral fluid samples. This NPS positivity rate of 8.4% in oral fluid of drivers who were submitted to a roadside drug testing in 2016 in France and in Belgium is comparable to the available blood data (NPS positivity rate of 7%) observed in 2015 in similar populations., Conclusion: Our results demonstrate the reality of driving after NPS use in French and Belgian drivers who were submitted to a roadside DOA test. As there is a lack of on-site detection methods to screen for NPS, the detection of NPS in a rapid and cost-effective DUID detection strategy is currently impossible. The expanding use of NPS, notably by drivers as reported here, and the inability of currently used drug detection tests, should be urgently addressed by road safety and law enforcement authorities., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Drugs which are commonly smoked or sniffed (e.g. cocaine), can contaminate hair through smoke or dust; therefore testing for metabolites, especially hydroxy metabolites, is highly recommended. The presence of hydroxy metabolites in street-cocaine (COC) has been discussed. To check if detection of hydroxy metabolites definitely proves ingestion, the presence of these metabolites in street COC samples has to be checked. It is expected that the more hydrophilic hydroxy metabolites of COC are incorporated into the hair-matrix to a lesser extent. For this study 576 COC positive hair samples (≥0.1ng COC/mg hair) were analysed by LC-MS/MS for benzoylecgonine (BE), norcocaine (NC), cocaethylene (CE), ortho-, meta- and para-hydroxy COC (o-, m-, p-OH-COC), meta- and para-hydroxy BE (m-, p-OH-BE), and meta- and para-hydroxy NC (m-, p-OH-NC). The results were compared with the respective metabolite/COC concentration ratios in 146 street COC samples, confiscated by the Bavarian police. Peak areas were used to estimate BE/COC, NC/COC, CE/COC and hydroxy metabolites/COC. Similar metabolic ratios were found for o-OH-COC in 88% of the samples, but for p-OH-COC and m-OH-COC only in 5.1% and 6.8%, respectively. Notably, p- and m-OH-BE as well as p- and m-OH-NC could not be identified from seized samples. We propose that area ratios exceeding the ratios of street COC more than twice or identification of OH-BE and OH-NC enable to differentiate COC consumption from contamination. Using these criteria, consumption of the drug could be proven in 92% of COC positive samples. As detection of meta- and para-hydroxy metabolites using the above mentioned criteria is a reliable tool to distinguish between ingestion and external contamination, it is recommended to implement their measurement into daily routine work., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) is a well-recognised public health concern. In South Africa however, epidemiological and toxicological data associated with suspected DFSA are not available. Toxicological screening is currently not routinely available in clinical forensic practice in the Western Cape, or elsewhere in South Africa., Objectives: To preliminary investigate and characterize DFSA in a specific metropolitan setting in South Africa and to identify the drugs/xenobiotics associated with these reported DFSAs., Methods: In total, 107 survivors of suspected DFSA who reported to Victoria Hospital Clinical Forensic Unit in Cape Town, between 1 October 2013 and 30 June 2016, were included. Blood, urine, and/or hair specimens from survivors were screened for drugs of abuse using a targeted LC-MS/MS method. Breath alcohol measurements were conducted using the Dräger Alcotest 6820 after July 2015. Patient, incident and examination history were recorded on standardized data sheets., Results: Of the 107 cases investigated, most of the patients were female (n=104, 97%), between the ages of 18-25years (n=54, 50%), and had reported to the Clinical Forensic Unit within 24h (n=78, 73%). Altogether, 30 patients (28%) reported a history of mental health issues, drugs and/or alcohol use, or prior sexual abuse. Most incidents took place in the late evening/early morning at the home of the assailant(s), a friend or of the patient (n=62, 58%), and most assailants were known to the victim (n=66, 62%). Specimens were positive for drugs and/or ethanol in 72 patients (67%), with drugs other than ethanol being detected in 60 patients (56%). Breath alcohol measurements were conducted in 58 cases during the prospective leg of the study with an average reading of 0.1mg/L (range not detected-0.98mg/L)., Conclusion: DFSA in this setting is mostly opportunistic, with ethanol suggested to be the most commonly involved drug, despite limitations in detection due to delays in reporting. Other common drugs observed were methamphetamine, methaqualone and diphenhydramine either alone or in combinations. The complexity and current inadequacy surrounding investigation of these cases is highlighted in this study as well as the necessity for greater investment into the development of infrastructure to support systematic toxicological analyses and services to assist in the investigation and understanding of these intricate cases. Training and empowerment of role players dealing with the investigation and management of DFSA is required, and subsequent public health education and policy development is essential., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In some forensic autopsies blood is not available, and other matrices are sampled for toxicological analysis. The aims of the present study were to examine whether heroin metabolites can be detected in different post-mortem matrices, and investigate whether analyses in other matrices can give useful information about concentrations in peripheral blood. Effects of ethanol on the metabolism and distribution of heroin metabolites were also investigated. We included 45 forensic autopsies where morphine was detected in peripheral blood, concomitantly with 6-acetylmorphine (6-AM) detected in any matrix. Samples were collected from peripheral blood, cardiac blood, pericardial fluid, psoas muscle, lateral vastus muscle, vitreous humor and urine. Opioid analysis included 6-AM, morphine, codeine, and morphine glucuronides. The 6-AM was most often detected in urine (n = 39) and vitreous humor (n = 38). The median morphine concentration ratio relative to peripheral blood was 1.3 (range 0-3.6) for cardiac blood, 1.4 (range 0.07-5.3) for pericardial fluid, 1.2 (range 0-19.2) for psoas muscle, 1.1 (range 0-1.7) for lateral vastus muscle and 0.4 (range 0.2-3.2) for vitreous humor. The number of 6-AM positive cases was significantly higher (P = 0.03) in the ethanol positive group (n = 6; 86%) compared to the ethanol negative group (n = 14; 37%) in peripheral blood. The distribution of heroin metabolites to the different matrices was not significantly different between the ethanol positive and the ethanol negative group. This study shows that toxicological analyses of several matrices could be useful in heroin-related deaths. Urine and vitreous humor are superior for detection of 6-AM, while concentrations of morphine could be assessed from peripheral or cardiac blood, pericardial fluid, psoas muscle and lateral vastus muscle.

For different reasons, street cocaine is often diluted with pharmacologically active substances, the so-called adulterants such as levamisole or hydroxyzine. A controversial debate exists currently on the uptake of adulterants from cocaine preparations and drug-related death. Previous research convincingly argues that serious adverse side effects that affect the central nervous and cardiovascular systems can be a consequence of adulterated cocaine., Aims: Having identified the presence of adulterants in lung tissue and blood, the concentrations of these substances in brain, an important target location, was of interest. This provides an opportunity to assess their role in cases of drug-related deaths., Materials and Methods: We developed and validated a method for the analysis of cocaine, two cocaine metabolites and six adulterants, which can typically be found in cocaine preparations, and one adulterant metabolite in brain tissue by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) 1 . Ten brain samples which were tested positive for cocaine were analyzed. The homogenized brain tissue was embedded into drying paper for protein precipitation. During a subsequent solid-phase extraction (SPE), the eluate and one of the wash fractions were collected. After derivatization with N-Methyl-N-(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide (MSTFA) in pyridine and isooctane, the extracts were analyzed by GC-MS., Results and Discussion: The method was fully validated for cocaine (COC), benzoylecgonine (BZE), ecgonine methyl ester (EME), diltiazem (DIL), hydroxyzine (HYD), and levamisole (LEV) and partly validated for cetirizine (CET), lidocaine (LID), phenacetin (PHE), and procaine (PRO) in brain material. By analyzing post-mortem brain tissue of ten cocaine users, LEV, LID, and HYD as well as PHE were identified in contrast to DIL, PRO, and the HYD metabolite CET. HYD and LEV were found in moderate to high concentrations in some cases. Therefore, it cannot be excluded that they have caused adverse side effects., Conclusion: Because adulterants can potentially affect the central nervous and cardiac systems, it is likely that they enhance COC toxicity., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The steady appearance of new fentanyl analogues and the associated overdose deaths require the development of sensitive screening approaches to detect these compounds in biological samples and seizures. We developed a targeted screening method to detect 50 4-anilidopiperidine-related fentanyl analogues in whole blood using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry in data-independent acquisition mode. Sample preparation was performed using protein precipitation on a fully automated robotic setup. Thirteen analogues were selected to validate the method. A small matrix ion enhancement effect (110-123%) was observed for all of the compounds; the recovery ranged from 67% to 81% and the process efficiency from 81% to 98%. Limit of detection was within 0.0005-0.001 mg/kg and limit of identification ranged from 0.001 to 0.005 mg/kg. In the retrospective analysis of 2339 forensic blood samples, the major finding was fentanyl (n = 56), followed by alfentanil (n = 5) and remifentanil (n = 1). Identification of 34 fentanyl analogues was based on the predicted product ions resulting from common fentanyl-specific collision-induced cleavages, particularly on the product ion result of the fragmentation on the C-N bond between the phenylamide moiety and the piperidine ring. The proposed hypothesis was supported by the targeted analysis of 16 fentanyl analogues using this method and available published mass spectral data sources for fentanyl analogues. A targeted screening method for 50 fentanyl analogues was successfully validated and implemented to analyse authentic blood samples, where identifying targeted fentanyl analogues was tentatively achieved without using reference standards., (Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Despite having been extensively discussed over the last decade, the differentiation between systemic exposure and external contamination still continues to be one of the limitations of hair testing for drugs. For this reason, we consider it worthwhile to re-state some basic principles in this short review. Various studies investigating a diversity of wash protocols, most using artificially contaminated hair with cocaine, have been valuable in evaluating wash efficacy and in understanding the incorporation of drugs in hair. However, assessments of wash efficacy made with real hair samples, as opposed to artificially contaminated samples, provide a different perspective, and demonstrate how rarely external contamination affects the interpretation of results. Data from a large number of hair samples from crack cocaine users, confirmed the usefulness of our protocol to remove most of the externally deposited cocaine. The data showed that hair levels of cocaine and benzoylecgonine in crack cocaine users were overall high with ratio of benzoylecgonine to cocaine in all samples above 0.1. The wash residue concentrations of cocaine ranged from not detected to 21ng/mg with a median of 0.5ng/mg. Cocaine was detected in the wash residue in 105 out of 138 samples. The wash to hair cocaine ratio ranged from not detected to 0.36 with a median of 0.02. The wash to hair cocaine ratios were below 0.07 in 133 cases. The five cases that produced wash to hair ratios above 0.1, one sample was at 0.11, three at 0.13 and one at 0.36, possibly because these cases were at the lower end of cocaine levels, however, we could not rule out that the hair was contaminated. Whilst it is not possible to differentiate between the drug extracted from the hair and the drug attached to the outside of the hair, we can compare levels of drug in the wash residue with levels detected in the hair sample. In addition, further diagnostic criteria must be applied to minimise potential misdiagnosis of external contamination. When drugs are detected in hair, individuals have clearly been in an environment where drugs are present, but it is only on rare occasions that it is unclear whether this is the result of drug use or of external contamination, and, in those cases, the results of testing need to be interpreted in the light of corroborating evidence from clinical data or social context., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The physiological, psychological, and social consequences associated with illicit drug use are well documented. In addition to the effects directly related to the drug(s), the delivery mechanism can precipitate other serious health conditions. A case is reported where an individual stopped by law enforcement was discovered to be in possession of a vial containing a red-colored fluid, which the person stated was blood and contained fentanyl. Analysis by headspace GC, ELISA, and LC-TOF/MS screening in with mass spectral confirmation revealed the presence of several substances, including ethanol, methamphetamine, amphetamine, MDA, 6-monoacetylmorphine, codeine, morphine, alprazolam, delta-9 THC, ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and norpseudoephedrine; serology testing verified the fluid was consistent with human blood. Methamphetamine was present at a dosage form amount (11 mg). The purpose of this study was to detail the analytical findings, interpret their meaning, and discuss the public health concerns associated with the drug delivery by the administration of human blood., (© 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.)

Liquid chromatographic methods coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry are increasingly used to identify compounds in various matrices including hair but there are few recommendations regarding the parameters and their criteria to identify a compound. In this study we present a method for the identification and quantification of a range of drugs and discuss the parameters used to identify a compound with high resolution mass spectrometry. Drugs were extracted from hair by incubation in a buffer:solvent mixture at 37°C during 18h. Analysis was performed on a chromatographic system comprised of an Agilent 6550 QTOF coupled to a 1290 Infinity UHPLC system. High resolution accurate mass data were acquired in the All Ions mode and exported into Mass Hunter Quantitative software for quantitation and identification using qualifier fragment ions. Validation included selectivity, matrix effects, calibration range, within day and between day precision and accuracy. The analytes were 7-amino-flunitrazepam, 7-amino-clonazepam, 7-amino-nitrazepam, acetylmorphine, alimemazine, alprazolam, amphetamine, benzoylecgonine, buprenorphine, diazepam, ethylmorphine, fentanyl, hydroxyzine, ketobemidone, codeine, cocaine, MDMA, methadone, methamphetamine, morphine, oxycodone, promethazine, propiomazine, propoxyphene, tramadol, zaleplone, zolpidem, and zopiclone. As proof of concept, hair from 29 authentic post mortem cases were analysed. The calibration range was established between 0.05ng/mg to 5.0ng/mg for all analytes except fentanyl (0.02-2.0), buprenorphine (0.04-2.0), and ketobemidone (0.05-4.0) as well as for alimemazine, amphetamine, cocaine, methadone, and promethazine (0.10-5.0). For all analytes, the accuracy of the fortified pooled hair matrix was 84-108% at the low level and 89-106% at the high level. The within series precisions were between 1.4 and 6.7% and the between series precisions were between 1.4 and 10.1%. From the 29 autopsy cases, 121 positive findings were encountered from 23 of the analytes in concentrations similar to those previously published. We conclude that the developed method proved precise and accurate and that it had sufficient performance for the purpose of detecting regular use of drugs or treatment with prescription drugs. To identify a compound we recommend the use of ion ratios as a complement to instrument software "matching scores"., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)