Determination of drug residues in used syringe needles

Concentrations of psychoactive substances in blood samples from non‐fatal and fatal opioid overdoses

“…Higher drug intake will produce higher concentrations than lower doses of the same drug, but there can be large inter‐individual differences due to pharmacokinetic factors such as genetic polymorphisms 21 that alter the bioavailability and metabolism. Recent studies showed that Norwegian drug abusers inject other drugs besides heroin, such as amphetamines 22,23 . The outcomes after amphetamine toxicity depend on the number of organs affected, the dose ingested, administration of any potent decongestants and patient comorbidities 24 .…”

“…Recent studies showed that Norwegian drug abusers inject other drugs besides heroin, such as amphetamines. 22,23 The outcomes after amphetamine toxicity depend on the number of organs affected, the dose ingested, administration of any potent decongestants and patient comorbidities. 24 Amphetamines might reduce the respiratory depressant effect of opioids, 25 and our study shows that identification of mechanisms by which amphetamines interfere with the probability of overdosing is needed and of great importance in overdose prevention.…”

A snapshot of injecting drug consumption from the analysis of used syringes within the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in Sydney, Australia

“…Sample preparation was conducted according to previously published studies [16,20,26]. Although alternative injecting paraphernalia such as needles, spoons and concealment bags are captured within sampled sharps bins and have been proven to provide valuable information, they were omitted in this study in order to avoid the inflation of results (i.e., multiple paraphernalia used for one injecting episode) [20,23]. In short, 1 mL of methanol was pumped in and out of each individual syringe five times.…”

“…Analysis of used injecting paraphernalia has provided valuable insights into adulteration and emerging drug trends at the consumption level, such as further examining the growing fentanyl-laced opioid epidemic in the United States [22] and other new psychoactive substances emergence [19]. The analysis of used injecting paraphernalia has also provided insight into the prevalence of polydrug mixtures; for example, in Norway, 50% of specimens contained multiple drugs (the most common mixture being amphetamine and heroin; 31% of all syringes) [23]. In Washington, DC, a high prevalence of fentanyl polydrug mixtures was detected in heroin (60% of heroin specimens), tramadol (88% of tramadol specimens) and cocaine (61% of cocaine specimens) [19].…”