SOFT 2004 Meeting Abstracts - Society of Forensic Toxicologists

B12
DRUGS OF ABUSE IN PORTUGAL; A STATISTICAL REVIEW
S Avila l "" A Castanheira, M Barroso, C Margalho, E Gallardo, S Santos, E Marques, D N Vieira:
National Institute of Legal Medicine-Delegation of Coimbra Portugal
Introduction: Drug abuse and its eventual association to fatal intoxications, or other violent deaths, is
responsible for a great number of requests for drug testing at the Portuguese National Institute of Legal
Medicine. With approval of recent legislation in 1998, which establishes procedures for conducting drug
screening requested by driving enforcement authorities, it has been possible to develop a new approach to
the evaluation of drug consumption linked to driving in situations which did not result in fatal accidents.
Objectives: The authors present a retrospective study involving cases from 2003, from the centre of
Portugal. Drug testing in post mortem blood was performed in all cases requested by the pathologist, as
well as in those cases of individuals aged less than 50 years old, when the autopsy was inconclusive. The
authors also evaluated the incidence of drugs ofabuse in deaths related to driving accidents, and discuss the
actions of the pathologist, as well as of the law forces, in these situations, regarding the request of the drug
screening.
Methods: The samples tested were always whole blood. After screening by enzyme-linked immunoassay
(EIA by Coda, Bio-Rad), the positive samples were submitted to a procedure involving solid phase
extraction followed by confirmation and quantification analysis using a HP 6890 gas chromatographer
equipped with a HP 5973 mass selective detector (GCIMS) using electron-impact ionization. Cut-off values
for the most common drugs are established by law: 100, 150,80 and 1000 ng/mL for opiates, cocaine and
metabolites, cannabinoids and amphetamines, respectively. The limits of quantification (LOQ) are less than
these cut-off values for all drugs analysed.
Results: The authors present the overall results oftesting for drugs of abuse in post mortem samples, with a
description of the circumstances of driving accidents. 261 analyses for drug testing in post mortem blood
were performed and 18 were positive (6.9%). 61 (23.4%) of the cases were due to driving accidents and
only I of these was positive for drugs of abuse. Law enforcement authorities requested 163 analyses for
drug testing. There were 10 (6.1%) positive results. In 6 of these positive cases, the information was
sufficient to establish links to driving accidents.
Conclusion: Since the law that regulates drug screening in driving cases is very recent, it is still difficult to
make reliable conclusions about the influence of these substances on driving, and on the incidence of
accidents. On the other hand, law enforcement authorities do not consistently request drug testing, because
the law is not clear enough in this respect. The pathologists also use variable criteria to request testing,
therefore, screening tests for drugs of abuse have only been performed on a small percentage of the total
fatal accidents.
Key words: Drugs of abuse, Driving, Portugal
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