ANALYTICAL STRATEGY FOR ANALYSIS OF DRUGS IN BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES IN CASE OF DUID

A recent retrospective epidemiological study carried out in the canton de Vaud (Switzerland) concerning drivers suspected of driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) showed a high incidence of cases containing two and more drugs. The declarations of the drivers and the observations of the police were necessary for later interpretation but not sufficient to justify a simplified analytical screening procedure. A forensic analytical strategy was developed for analysis of a large variety of drugs in urine and/or whole blood. The analytical strategy included screening, confirmation and quantitation of drugs. If screening was preferably performed in urine, confirmation and quantitation analysis were done in blood, in order to give useful results for forensic interpretation and the possibility to try to answer whether or not the driver was under the influence of drugs. Immunological tests and gas-chromatography coupled with mass-spectrometry (GC-MS) were used for screening. All identifications and confirmations were performed by GC-MS. Amphetamines, opiates, cocaine and cannabinoids were quantified by GC-MS after derivatization, using deuterium labeled internal standards. Other drugs were quantified by GC-NPD, GC-ECD or HPLC-UV. Quantitation of ethanol was performed by two different chromatographic methods. (A) For the covering abstract see IRRD 893732.