Consumption of illicit drugs is a new concern for water management that must be considered not only because of the social and public health aspects but also in an environmental context in relation with the contamination of surface waters. Indeed, sewage treatment plant (STP) effluents contain drug residues that have not been eliminated since STP treatments are not completely efficient in their ...

To drug-free urine specimens, we added the following drugs of abuse to give concentrations twice the cutoff value for positive test results: 11-nor-9-carboxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (9-carboxy-THC), oxazepam, secobarbital, morphine, benzoylecgonine, amphetamine, or phencyclidine (PCP). Visine was then added. Although measured concentrations of several drugs were decreased in the presence o...

Regardless of its form, the coingestion of cocaine (COC) and ethanol is still a very important problem in drug abuse. The formation of the transesterification byproduct, cocaethylene (CE), which has lower LD50 has led to the idea that the combination of the two drugs is more toxic (lethal) than just cocaine individual response and that smaller concentrations of the drug concentration should be ...

During the last years in Germany a marked increase in the use of amphetamines such as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) has been observed. The use of these recreational drugs is especially common among young people participating in rave parties. Occasionally ring-methoxylated phenethylamine derivatives like paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA) or paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA) are fo...

Drugs deposited in human teeth are well preserved; the spectrum of toxicological investigations may therefore be supplemented by an analysis method for drugs in teeth. A liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry assay for the detection and quantification of basic drugs of abuse in bovine dentin samples was developed and validated. The drugs and metabolites amphetami...

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...

The concentrations and ratios of cocaine, benzoylecgonine (BE), and ecgoninemethylester (EME) in 360 head hair segments and 34 pubic hair samples collected at coroner's postmortem examinations were reviewed. The cases included diverse histories and causes/circumstances of death. The hair was analyzed using a validated method published previously; hair was shampoo washed, solvent washed, followe...

The purpose of the current study is to determine whether sex differences in metabolism of cocaine (COC) exist that could contribute to the greater behavioral sensitivity of females to COC administration. To investigate this question, concentrations of COC and its two principle metabolites benzoylecgonine (BE) and ecgonine methyl ester (EME) were measured by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy ...

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) has been employed to rapidly screen longitudinally sectioned drug user hair samples for cocaine and its metabolites using continuous raster imaging. Optimization of the spatial resolution and raster speed were performed on intact cocaine contaminated hair samples. The optimized settings (100 × 150 μm at 0.24 mm/s)...

Deuterium-labeled cocaine (cocaine-d5) was administered intravenously and/or intranasally in doses of 0.6-4.2 mg/kg to 25 human volunteers under laboratory clinical conditions. Sequential blood samples were collected for up to 3 days, and hair samples were collected for up to 10 months. Samples were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for cocaine-d5 and its major metabolite...