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Chapter 11:

Drugs

Introduction

A drug can be defined as a natural or synthetic substance that is used to produce physiological or psychological effects in humans or other higher order animals.

The common denominator that characterizes all types of repeated drug use is the creation of psychological dependence for continued use of the drug.

Emotional factors that play a part in drug dependence include the personal characteristics of the user, his or her expectations about the drug experience, society’s attitudes and possible responses and the settings in which the drug is used.

Introduction

Physical dependence is defined as the physiological need for a drug that has been brought about by its regular use. The desire to avoid withdrawal sickness, or abstinence syndrome, ultimately causes physical dependence or addiction.

Marijuana and cocaine are common drugs of abuse whose regular use does not lead to physical dependence.

Common Classification
of Drugs of Abuse

Narcotics
Depressants
Stimulants
Hallucinogens

Narcotics

Narcotic drugs are analgesics, meaning they relieve pain by a depressing action on the central nervous system. Their depressant effects influence blood pressure, pulse rate, and breathing rate.

The regular use of a narcotic drug will invariably lead to physical dependence.

The most common source for these narcotic drugs is opium, extracted from poppies.

Narcotics

Morphine is readily extracted from opium and is used to synthesize heroin.

Addicts frequently dissolve heroin in water by heating it in a spoon, then injecting it in the skin.

Heroin produces a “high” that is accompanied by drowsiness and a sense of well-being that generally last for three to four hours.

Codeine is also present in opium, but it is usually prepared synthetically from morphine.

Synthetic Opiates
Not Derived From Opium

OxyContin

OxyContin, with the active ingredient oxycodone, is not derived from opium or morphine, but does have the same physiological effects on the body as do opium narcotics.
OxyContin is prescribed to a million patients for treatment of chronic pain.

Methadone

Methadone is another well-known synthetic opiate.
Methadone, which is pharmacologically related to heroin, appears to eliminate the addict’s desire for heroin while producing minimal side effects.

Hallucinogens

Another class of drugs is hallucinogens; marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug.

Hallucinogens cause marked changes in normal thought processes, perceptions, and moods.

Marijuana is the most controversial drug in this class because its long-term effects on health are still largely unknown.

The Cannabis plant contains a chemical known as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which produces the psychoactive effects experienced by users. Its concentration varies in the Cannabis plant.

Marijuana

Marijuana refers to a preparation derived from the plant Cannabis.

The chemical substance largely responsible for the hallucinogenic properties of marijuana is known as tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.

The THC content of Cannabis varies in different parts of the plant, generally decreasing in the following sequence: resin, flowers, leaves, with little THC in the stem, roots or seeds.

The THC-rich resin is known as hashish.

Marijuana does not cause physical dependency, but the risk of harm is in heavy, long-term use.

Other Hallucinogens

LSD

LSD is synthesized from lysergic acid, and can cause hallucinations that can last for 12 hours.

Phencyclidine (PCP)

PCP is often synthesized in clandestine laboratories and is often smoked, ingested, or sniffed.
Phencyclidine is often mixed with other drugs, such as LSD, or amphetamine, and is sold as a powder (“angel dust”), capsule, or tablet.
Oral intake of PCP first leads to feelings of strength and invulnerability, which may turn to depression, tendencies toward violence, and suicide.

Depressants

Depressants are substances used to depress the functions of the central nervous system.

Depressants calm irritability and anxiety and may induce sleep.

These include alcohol (ethanol), barbiturates, anti-anxiety drugs, and various substances that can be sniffed, such as airplane glue, model cement, or aerosol gas propellants such as freon.

Depressants

Alcohol (ethyl alcohol) enters the body’s bloodstream and quickly travels to the brain, where it acts to suppress the brain’s control of thought processes and muscle coordination.

Barbiturates, or “downers,” are normally taken orally and create a feeling of well-being, relax the body, and produce sleep.

Anti-anxiety drugs, unlike barbiturates, produce a relaxing tranquility without impairment of high-thinking faculties or inducing sleep; e.g., Valium, Xanax.

Sniffing has immediate effects such as exhilaration, but impairs judgment and may cause liver, heart, and brain damage, or even death.

Stimulants

The drug classification of stimulants includes amphetamines, sometimes known as “uppers” or “speed,” and cocaine, which in its free-base form is known as crack.

Stimulants are substances taken to increase alertness or activity, followed by a decrease in fatigue and a loss of appetite.

Stimulants

Amphetamine and methamphetamine, often injected intravenously, cause an initial “rush,” followed by an intense feeling of pleasure.
This is followed by a period of exhaustion and a prolonged period of depression.

Cocaine, extracted from the leaves of Erythroxylin coca, causes increased alertness and vigor, accompanied by the suppression of hunger, fatigue, and boredom.
Crack is cocaine mixed with baking soda and water, then heated.
Crack is often smoked in glass pipes, and like cocaine stimulates the brain’s pleasure center.

Club Drugs

The term club drugs refers to synthetic drugs that are used at nightclubs, bars, and raves (all-night dance parties).

Substances that are often used as club drugs include (but are not limited to):
MDMA (Ecstasy)
GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate)
Rohypnol (“Roofies”)
Ketamine
Methamphetamine

GHB and Rohypnol are central nervous system depressants that are often connected with drug-facilitated sexual assault, rape, and robbery.

Club Drugs

Ecstasy

Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as MDMA or Ecstasy, is a synthetic mind-altering drug that exhibits many hallucinogenic and amphetamine-like effects.
Ecstasy enhances self-awareness and decreases inhibitions, however, seizures, muscle breakdown, stroke, kidney failure, and cardiovascular system failure often accompany chronic abuse.

Ketamine

Ketamine is primarily used as a veterinary animal anesthetic that in humans causes euphoria and hallucinations.
Ketamine can also cause impaired motor functions, high blood pressure, amnesia, and mild respiratory depression.

Anabolic Steroids

These are synthetic compounds that are chemically related to the male sex hormone testosterone.

Anabolic steroids are often abused by individuals who are interested in accelerating muscle growth.

Side effects include unpredictable effects on mood and personality, depression, diminished sex drive, halting bone growth, and liver cancer.

Drug-Control Laws

The U.S. federal law known as the Controlled Substances Act will serve to illustrate a legal drug-classification system created to prevent and control drug abuse.

This federal law establishes five schedules of classification for controlled dangerous substances on the basis of a drug’s:

Potential for abuse
Potential for physical and psychological dependence
Medical value

Schedules of Classification

Schedule I drugs have a high potential for abuse and have no currently accepted medical use, such as heroin, marijuana, methaqualone, and LSD.

Schedule II drugs have a high potential for abuse and have medical use with severe restrictions, such as cocaine, PCP, and most amphetamine and barbiturate prescriptions.

Schedule III drugs have less potential for abuse and a currently accepted medical use, such as all barbiturate prescriptions not covered under Schedule II, including codeine and anabolic steroids.

Schedules of Classification

Schedule IV drugs have a low potential for abuse and have a current medical use, such as darvon, phenobarbital, and some tranquilizers such as diazepam (valium) and chlordiazepoxide (librium).

Schedule V drugs must show low abuse potential and have medical use, such as opiate drug mixtures that contain non-narcotic medicinal ingredients.

Collection and Preservation
of Drug Evidence

The field investigator has the responsibility of ensuring that the evidence is properly packaged and labeled for the laboratory.

Generally common sense is the best guide, keeping in mind that the package must prevent the loss of the contents and/or cross-contamination. Often the original container in which the drug was seized will suffice.

All packages must be marked with information that is sufficient to ensure identification by the officer in the future and establish the chain of custody.

To aid the drug analyst, the investigator should supply any background information that may relate to a drug’s identity.

Drug Identification

The challenge or difficulty of forensic drug identification comes in selecting analytical procedures that will ensure a specific identification of a drug.

This plan, or scheme of analysis, is divided into two phases:

Screening test that is nonspecific and preliminary in nature to reduce the possibilities to a manageable number.
Confirmation test that is a single test that specifically identifies a substance.

Preliminary Analysis

Faced with the prospect that the unknown substance may be any one of a thousand or more commonly encountered drugs, the analyst must employ screening tests to reduce these possibilities to a small and manageable number.

This objective is often accomplished by subjecting the material to a series of color tests that will produce characteristic colors for the more commonly encountered illicit drugs:

Marquis Test: heroin and amphetamines
Duquenois-Levine: marijuana
Scott Test: cocaine
Dillie-Koppanyi: barbiturates
Van Urk: LSD

Preliminary Analysis

Microcrystalline tests can also be used to identify specific drug substances by studying the size and shape of crystals formed when the drug is mixed with specific reagents.

Confirmational Determination

Once this preliminary analysis is completed, a confirmational determination is pursued.
Forensic chemists will employ a specific test to identify a drug substance to the exclusion of all other known chemical substances.
Typically infrared spectrophotometry or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry is used to specifically identify a drug substance.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative

Another consideration in selecting an analytical technique is the need for either a qualitative or a quantitative determination.
The former relates just to the identity of the material, whereas the latter requires the determination of the percent composition of the components of a mixture.

Chromatography

Chromatography is a means of separating and tentatively identifying the components of a mixture.

The theory of chromatography is based on the observation that chemical substances have a tendency to partially escape into the surrounding environment when dissolved in a liquid or when absorbed on a solid surface.

Henry’s Law: When a volatile chemical is dissolved in a liquid phase and is brought to equilibrium with an air phase above it, there is a fixed ratio between the concentration of the volatile compound in air and its concentration in liquid, and this ratio remains constant for a given temperature.

Chromatography

In chromatography one phase is always made to move in one direction over a stationary or fixed phase.

Those materials that have a preference for the moving phase will slowly pull ahead and separate from those substances that prefer to remain in the stationary phase.

TLC

TLC uses a solid stationary phase usually coated onto a glass plate and a mobile liquid phase to separate the components of the mixture.

The liquid will slowly rise up the plate by capillary action, causing the sample to become distributed between the stationary phase and the moving liquid phase.

Because most compounds are colorless, the materials must be visualized by placing the plates under ultraviolet light or spraying the plate with a chemical reagent.

The distance a spot travels up a thin-layer plate can be assigned a numerical value known as the Rf value.

Gas Chromatography

In GC, the moving phase is actually a gas called the carrier gas, which flows through a column.

The stationary phase is a thin film of liquid contained within the column.

After a mixture has traversed the length of the column, it will emerge separated into its components.

The written record of this separation is called a chromatogram.

The time required for a component to emerge from a GC column is known as retention time.

Theory of Light

Light is described as a continuous wave.
When white light passes though a prism, it is dispersed into a continuous spectrum of colors.

Waves are described in terms such as:

Wavelength, the distance between two successive crests (or one trough to the next trough).

Frequency, the number of crests (or troughs) passing any one given point per unit of time.

The electromagnetic spectrum is the entire range of radiation energy from the most energetic cosmic rays to the least energetic radio waves.

Visible light is only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Spectrophotometry

Just as a substance can absorb visible light to produce color, many of the invisible radiations of the electromagnetic spectrum are likewise absorbed.

Spectrophotometry, an important analytical tool, measures the quantity of radiation that a particular material absorbs as a function of wavelength and frequency.

The Spectrophotometer

The spectrophotometer is the instrument used to measure and record the absorption spectrum of a chemical substance.

The components of a spectrophotometer are:

A radiation source

A monochromator or frequency selector

A sample holder

A detector to convert electromagnetic radiation into an electrical signal

A recorder to produce a record of the signal

Absorption spectra can be done in the visible, ultraviolet (UV) or infrared (IR) regions.

The Spectrophotometer

James O'Sullivan (JO) - INsert fig 11-22

Figure 11-22

UVand IR Spectrophotometry

Currently, most forensic laboratories use UV and IR spectrophotometers to characterize chemical compounds.

UV Spectrum

The simplicity of the UV spectrum facilitates its use as a tool for determining a material’s probable identity, although it may not provide a definitive result.

IR Spectrum

The IR spectrum provides a far more complex pattern.
Different materials always have distinctively different infrared spectra; each IR spectrum is therefore equivalent to a “fingerprint” of that substance.

Mass Spectrometry

In the mass spectrometer, a beam of high-energy electrons collide with a material, producing positively charged ions.

These positive ions almost instantaneously decompose into numerous fragments, which are separated according to their masses.

The unique feature of mass spectrometry is that under carefully controlled conditions, no two substances produce the same fragmentation pattern.

GC and Mass Spectrometry

A direct connection between the GC column and the mass spectrometer allows each component to flow into the mass spectrometer as it emerges from the GC.

The separation of a mixture’s components is first accomplished by the GC.

Then, fragmentation of each component by high-energy electrons in the mass spectrometer will produce a distinct pattern, somewhat like a “fingerprint” of the substance being examined.