Impurities, adulterants and diluents of illicit heroin. Changes during a 12-year period
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Voltammetric sensing using an array of modified SPCE coupled with machine learning strategies for the improved identification of opioids in presence of cutting agents
2021, Journal of Electroanalytical ChemistryCitation Excerpt :An additional oxidation peak was observed at a lower potential +0.40 V due to the oxidation of the phenol group of 6-monoacetylmorphine (6-MAM) a trace constituent present in the sample (typical content, 3 wt%). In detail, 6-MAM is an impurity from heroin synthesis, resulting in the incomplete acetylation of morphine and also a product of hydrolysis of the alkaloid present in most heroin samples [1]. As can be seen in Fig. 5, the peak corresponding to the oxidation of the phenol group of 6-MAM and morphine is overlapped with the oxidation peak of paracetamol.
When does the cutting of cocaine and heroin occur? The first large-scale study based on the chemical analysis of cocaine and heroin seizures in Switzerland
2019, International Journal of Drug PolicyCitation Excerpt :These observations are in line with the literature which reported that adulteration is decided at the production or just after importation (1999, Coomber & Maher, 2006; Coomber, 1997b). Nevertheless, our observations regarding the cutting of heroin are different from older studies that observed little purity difference between the heroin seized by customs (i.e. prior to its distribution in the country of consumption) and heroin seized at the street level (i.e. end of the supply chain) (1999, Coomber, 1997c; de la Fuente, Saavedra, Barrio, Royuela, & Vicente, 1996; Kaa, 1994; King, 1997). Our results showed a decrease of nearly two-thirds in purity between specimens weighing more than 1000 g and specimens weighing less than 100 g. Interestingly, this purity decrease was due to one specific combination of adulterants – caffeine and paracetamol.
Metabolism and metabolomics of opiates: A long way of forensic implications to unravel
2019, Journal of Forensic and Legal MedicineCitation Excerpt :Indeed, the average half-life for free morphine was found to be 3.6 h, but for total morphine (i.e., the sum of free and conjugated morphine) was 7.9 h.22 After heroin administration, morphine could be detected for 12 h and up to 24 h in blood and urine, respectively101,102 and up to 53 h in urine after deglucuronidation.103 As the pharmaceutical maintenance heroin is pure with less than 1% of acetylcodeine, the presence of codeine and especially of acetylcodeine or also of noscapine or papaverine in the urine of patients indicates that they may be complementing their prescribed heroin doses with illicit heroin.87,104 This is particularly important since there is growing international interest in investigating the prescription of injectable diamorphine (i.e., pharmaceutical heroin) in the treatment of heroin dependence.105–107
A response to “The importance of economic context in interpreting forensic data on drug trafficking networks”
2017, Forensic Science InternationalThe cutting of cocaine and heroin: A critical review
2016, Forensic Science InternationalCitation Excerpt :Thus, this would badly explain their addition by street dealers just before selling illicit drugs and may instead support the hypothesis of an addition of adulterants at the production or at a relatively high level of the distribution chain [51]. In particular, several studies assessed that heroin adulteration would take place before exportation or just after importation in the country of destination, where it would be realised by the minority of those involved in its distribution [1,11,43,51,54]. Since years, it was estimated that paracetamol added to heroin was illicit paracetamol, which was made brown (like base heroin), and not originating from pharmaceutical suppliers [43,51].