Diluents in samples of controlled psychoactive substances on the territory of the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

Smuggling and abuse of psychoactive substances has experienced an expansion with accelerated technological development over the past 20 years. The growing tendencies to use the means of passenger and air traffic, as well as the improvement of road and air-travel infrastructure and the connection of parts of the world unimaginable in the past, inspired traffickers of these substances to find new routes for transportation and smuggling in order to achieve the greatest possible profits, and at the same time avoid being answerable before the law. The tendencies of smugglers to make a profit are closely related to the financing of terrorist organizations that represent the global threat to humanity. This paper processed data on the number and composition of samples with pure psychoactive substances and samples of these substances with diluents, present for the course of 2021 and the first part of 2022, which resulted in the conclusion that in the current year there was an increase in the number of cases and samples, but also the number of diluents compared to 2021. The aim of this analysis is to determine the presence of diluents, their variety, based on the content of samples of controlled psychoactive substances such as amphetamine, heroin, cocaine and MDMA delivered to one of the organizational units of the National Center for Criminal Forensics in the observed period, and to potentially draw conclusions about trends in the smuggling of controlled psychoactive substances.