OBJECTIVE Recent reports in Europe suggest a decline in 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; Ecstasy) use, but quantifiable and objective measurement is unavailable. The global extent of changes in MDMA and related stimulant use is also unclear. This study aims to quantify changes in MDMA use in Australia and determine whether these changes have been accompanied by differing amounts of othe...

Federal workplace drug testing was initiated during the late 1980s. Since then, numerous methods have been employed to subvert these drug tests, adulteration of urine samples being the most common. A wide variety of adulterants has been reported to date along with suitable methods of their detection. Recently, websites have claimed that zinc sulfate can be an effective adulterant to bypass drug...

The applications of LC-API-MS in routine forensic toxicological casework were presented. This technique has been used for routine determination of several groups of drugs: opiate agonists (like morphine, codeine, dihydrocodeine and their glucuronides, methadone, buprenorphine) cocaine and its metabolites (benzoylecgonine and ecgonine methyl ester), amphetamine and other psychoactive phenethylam...

The effectiveness of substance abuse treatment programs can be monitored by self-reported drug use and objectively measured by qualitative and quantitative urinalysis. The advantages and disadvantages of each of these three methods of assessing drug use are reviewed. Data collected in a clinical trial of a behavioral treatment for cocaine abuse are used to evaluate the relationships among quali...

This is a method for efficiently extracting a wide variety of drugs from urine for toxicological analysis by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Before extraction, the urine sample is acetylated, diluted with an equal volume of water, and saturated with NaCl. This solution is then mixed with an equal volume of dichloromethane/acetone (2:1 by vol). The organic (top) phase is aspirated and evap...

The use of oral fluid (OF) as an alternative matrix for the detection of drugs of abuse has increased over the last decade, leading to the need for a rapid, simple, and reliable on-site OF testing device. Four on-site OF drug testing devices (Dräger DrugTest 5000, Cozart DDS, Mavand Rapid STAT, and Innovacon OrAlert) were evaluated on 408 volunteers at drug treatment centers. UPLC-MS-MS results...

This modified calibration method decreases from 300 to 27 micrograms/L the limit of detection for the cocaine metabolite (hydrolysis product), benzoylecgonine, by the Abbott Laboratories TDx fluorescence polarization immunoassay. For this determination we used 30 controls prepared from a single urine pool known to be negative for cocaine metabolite. Assay of 80 controls prepared from 20 differe...

BACKGROUND Cocaine use seems to be increasing in some urban areas worldwide, but it is not straightforward to determine the real extent of this phenomenon. Trends in drug abuse are currently estimated indirectly, mainly by large-scale social, medical, and crime statistics that may be biased or too generic. We thus tested a more direct approach based on 'field' evidence of cocaine use by the gen...

OBJECTIVE To assess school-age cognitive and achievement outcomes in children with prenatal cocaine exposure, controlling for confounding drug and environmental factors. STUDY DESIGN At age 9 years, 371 children (192 cocaine exposure [CE]; 179 non-cocaine exposure [NCE]) were assessed for IQ and school achievement in a longitudinal, prospective study from birth. An extensive number of confoun...

The presence of salicylates in urine reduces the signal in Emit assays (Syva), potentially yielding false-negative drugs-of-abuse screening results. We demonstrate that the principal urinary metabolite of salicylate, salicyluric acid (SUA; 2-hydroxybenzoylaminoacetic acid), interferes with the measurement of NADH formed in the assay by reducing the molar absorptivity of NADH at 340 nm. Thus, fo...