Author(s): Gameiro, Rui ; Costa, Suzel ; Barroso, Mário ; Franco, João ; Fonseca, Suzana
Date: 2018
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/57813
Origin: Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal e Ciências Forenses, IP
Subject(s): Cocaine; Adulterants; Blood samples; Forensic Toxicology
Background & Objectives According to the European Drug Report of 2017, cocaine was the second most widely used drug in 2016, with 3.5 million consumers between 15 and 64 years old. This pattern of consumption also occurs in Portugal (2012). Adulterants are pharmacologically active substances developed for medical purposes (analgesics, local anesthetics, antihistamines, anthelmintics and others). However, there is little knowledge about their influence in the human body when there is concomitant use with cocaine, such as an increase of cocaine toxicity even in non-toxic concentrations. The objective of this work was to validate a method that allows the identification, confirmation and quantification of cocaine adulterants in blood samples collected in vivo or post-mortem. The studied substances (atropine, phenacetin, hydroxyzine, ketamine, lidocaine and tetramisole) were selected taking into account the literature review, the analytical standards and the technical conditions. It is also intended to make a retrospective study of the prevalence of these substances in cases with a positive result for cocaine or its metabolites, as well as their relative concentrations.
