BACKGROUND Recently, the number of new psychoactive substances (NPS) appearing on the illicit drug market has shown a marked increase. Although many users perceive the risk of using NPS as medium or low, these substances can pose a serious health risk and several NPS have been implicated in drug-related deaths. In Europe, frequently detected NPS are 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine (2C-B), 4...

A previously fit 35 year old man presented with a right hemiparesis and dysphasia 36 hours after abuse of Ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine). Computerized axial tomography scan demonstrated an extensive acute left cerebral infarction and carotid digital subtraction angiogram, 2 days after admission, revealed left middle cerebral artery occlusion. There were no other known risk factors ...

A simple and reliable gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method for identifying and quantifying psychoactive drugs in oral fluid is described. Substances under investigation were: psychostimulant drugs (amphetamine, methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxiamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-ethylamphetamine, phentermine), cocaine and metabolites (benzoylecgonine, c...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The number of new users of illicit substances has been growing steadily all over the world over the last few years. Marijuana and cocaine have been mentioned most often, but the last few years saw a marked increase in the number of users of other psychostimulants or hallucinogens, taken with the aim of intensifying social experiences. The aim of this article is to disc...

Estimation of illicit drug use on a community level by wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is both an objective and reliable way to establish near real-time results. Wastewater samples were collected at eleven timepoints in Reykjavik from 2017 2020. The commonly abused drugs Iceland (amphetamine, methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), cocaine, cannabis) was estimated. Solid ...

Illicit drug consumption is a worldwide worrying phenomenon that troubles modern society. For this reason, law enforcement agencies (LEAs) are placing tremendous efforts into tackling the spreading of such substances among our community. New sensing technologies can facilitate LEAs duties by providing portable and affordable analytical devices. Herein, we present for first time sensitive low-co...