Controlo químico de bebidas adulteradas em crimes facilitados com drogas

J.A. Prior; D.S. Ribeiro; J.L. Santos

J.A. Prior Professor Auxiliar, Requimte, Laboratório de Química Aplicada, Departamento de Ciências Químicas, Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade do Porto. Portugal
D.S. Ribeiro Investigador Auxiliar, Requimte, Laboratório de Química Aplicada, Departamento de Ciências Químicas, Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade do Porto. Portugal
J.L. Santos Professor Auxiliar, Requimte, Laboratório de Química Aplicada, Departamento de Ciências Químicas, Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade do Porto. Portugal

Keywords: Drug facilitated crime, Automatic methodology, Spiked drinks, Drugs of abuse, Drug screening

Abstract

Although drugs are developed with therapeutics intentions, sometimes some substances are used for purposes other than those the pharmacologist had in mind. The word “drug” also involves psychoactive substances that can be used for medicinal or non-medicinal purposes in which it is included substances that are legal or illegal. The use of drugs for intentions other than their therapeutic purposes has become a growing public concern making their study very important from the toxicological standpoint. When alleged victims report that they were robbed or assaulted while incapacitated by a drug, toxicological chemical analysis is imperative to help substantiate the victim’s claim. These criminal offenses are known as drug facilitated crimes.

The branch of science dedicated to toxicology studies has two application fields, forensic and analytical toxicology, that are interdisciplinary and that comprise all the scientific facts related with crimes committed through the use of drugs. Most often, the cases of crimes facilitated by drugs involve substances that have strong central nervous system depressant effects that are availed to easily render victims to robberies or sexual assaults. As new drugs are continuously being synthetized and new methods are used for drugging victims without their knowledge or consent it is important to develop new analytical methods that can assist in the investigation for figuring out all the details about this sort of crimes or enable ways of their prevention. For example, one way of drugging victims without being aware of is through drink spiking in social entertainment places, during parties, raves, etc. In these cases, the spiked beverages are the “crime weapons”.

In this paper, it will be presented the relation of drug facilitated crimes and the toxicology science and also a review focused on the available analytical methods for the detection of adulterated beverages with drugs.

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