13.1: Illicit Drugs

• Drug – a natural or synthetic substance that is designed to produce a specific set of psychological or physiological effects on the human body or, in some cases, other animals.

• Drug abuse – occurs when people take drugs for purposes other than for which they are intended; usually for their psychoactive effects.

• Controlled Substances – refer to the inclusion in a part of the Federal Code – Controlled Substances Act.

Federal Schedules of Controlled Substances

Schedule I

• The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.

• The drug causes physical addiction or psychological dependence.

• The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

• There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substances under medical supervision.

• Some Schedule I substances are heroin, LSD, marihuana, PCP, and methaqualone.

Schedule II

• The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.

• The drug or other substance has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States or a currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions.

• Abuse of the drug or other substance may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.

• Schedule II substances include morphine, PCP, cocaine, methadone, and methamphetamine.

Schedule III

• The drug or other substance has a potential for abuse less than the drugs or other substances in Schedules I and II.

• The drug or other substance has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

• Abuse of the drug or other substance may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence.

• Anabolic steroids, codeine, and hydrocodone with aspirin or Tylenol and some barbiturates are Schedule III substances.

Schedule IV

• The drug or other substance has a low potential for abuse relative to the drugs or other substances in Schedule III.

• The drug or other substance has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

• Abuse of the drug or other substance may lead to limited physical dependence or psychological dependence relative to the drugs or other substances in Schedule III.

• Included in Schedule IV are Darvon, Talwin, Equanil, Valium, and Xanax.

Schedule V

• The drug or other substance has a low potential for abuse relative to the drugs or other substances in Schedule IV.

• The drug or other substance has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

• Abuse of the drug or other substance may lead to limited physical dependence or psychological dependence relative to the drugs or other substances in Schedule IV.

• Over-the-counter cough medicines with codeine are classified as Schedule V

13.2: Classification of Illicit Drugs

• Naturally occurring

  • These substances are found in nature in plants. Part of the plant is ingested, and the drug is extracted and used by the person.

  • Marihuana – the leaves are dried and smoked.

  • Psilocybin mushrooms – these are eaten. They contain psilocybin and psilocin, which cause hallucinations (hallucinogens).

  • Peyote cactus – the cactus buttons are eaten. They contain mescaline, a hallucinogen.

• Plant extracts

  • These are naturally occurring substances that are extracted from plants and then ingested.

  • Cocaine – extracted from the coca plant.

  • Morphine and codeine – are extracted from the opium poppy.

• Semisynthetic

  • These substances are derived chemically from a naturally occurring substance.

  • Heroin – manufactured from morphine.

  • LSD – is manufactured from lysergic acid.

• Synthetic

  • Substances that are manmade.

  • Amphetamines

  • Barbiturates

  • Phencyclidine (PCP)

  • Oxycodone

Types of Illicit Drugs

Stimulants

• Drugs that elevate one’s mood. They help people who are sad or depressed. They give people extra energy.

• Amphetamines – generally believed that when taken intravenously, these substances become addicting, whereas when taken orally or smoked, they cause strong psychological dependence, but not addiction.

• Cocaine – a naturally occurring substance that is found only in the Erythoxylon coca plant that grows almost exclusively on the Amazon slopes.

  • Crack – a form of crystalline cocaine.

Depressants

• Induce sleep, relieve anxiety and muscle spasms, and prevent seizures.

• Barbiturates – are a group of chemical substances based on the compounds barbituric acid and thiobarbituric acid.

  • Meprobamate

  • Methaqualone

  • Benzodiazepines

  • Valium

Narcotics

• Narcotics Derived from Opium

  • Heroin –  a drug that is easily made from morphine, is approximately ten times more potent and is used legitimately as an analgesic in some other countries.

  • Codeine – a cough suppressant in liquid preparations and is also mixed with mild analgesics such as aspirin or Tylenol® to boost their analgesic effects.

• Synthetic Narcotics

  • Methadone – a heroin substitute to get addicts off of heroin under close medical supervision.

  • Fentanyl – (designer drugs) illegal substances that are synthesized with particular pharmacological characteristics designed for abuse purposes.

  • Oxycodone – or Oxycontin.

Hallucinogens

• Lysergic Acid Diethylamide

  • Not a naturally occurring substance but is derived from ergot alkaloids which themselves are derived from a grain fungus.

  • As little as 50μg of it can cause auditory and visual hallucinogens that can last up to 12h.

• Psilocybin

  • It is found in a variety of mushrooms with the most potent one being Psilocybe Mexicana. It has the same effects as LSD.

• Marihuana

  • It has been purported to have beneficial medical effects. It belongs to the genus Cannabis.

  • Sinsemilla – seedless marihuana.

  • Spice or K2 – a synthetic Marijuana;  a blend of herbs and plant material that has been sprayed with one or more synthetic cannabinoids.

• Mescaline

  • A group of substances whose chemical structure is similar to amphetamine but because of substitutions on the benzene ring, have hallucinogenic, rather than stimulant properties. It is found in the upper crown of the peyote cactus.

• 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) or Ecstasy

  • The drug of choice in the popular drug and alcohol parties known as “raves.

  • Classified as Schedule 1 drug.

• Phencyclidine

  • Introduced as one of a new class of intravenous anesthetics.

  • It also caused some bizarre side effects in humans that include a feeling of no pain sensations, superhuman strength, rage, loss of memory, and paranoia.

13.3: Drug Analysis

Several questions should be answered before embarking on a scheme of analysis:

1. How are the controlled drugs defined and described in this jurisdiction?

2. Is the weight of the drug and/or the aggregate weight of the exhibit important? Does the case involve unusually large amounts of the drug or numerous exhibits, or a very small amount of the drug?

3. Must the identity of the drug be established and then confirmed?

4. Is it necessary to determine the purity of the drug exhibit (quantitative analysis)?

5. Is it necessary to identify any of the cutting agents present in the exhibit?

• Excipients – substances that may mimic the activity of the main illicit drug present to make it more difficult for the user to know just how much of the drug there really is in the exhibit.

• Diluents –  chemicals that are used to dilute an illicit drug and to give it more bulk.

• Scientific Working Group on Seized Drugs (SWGDRUG) – an international committee of drug experts has been working for nearly 10 years on developing standards for the analysis of illicit drugs.

Preliminary Test

• The package should be opened – protective gloves should be worn.

• The appearance of the exhibit should be noted.

• The exhibit is then weighed.

• Presumptive tests are done.

• Duquenois–Levine test – the presumptive color test for marihuana.

• Ehrlich’s test– a good presumptive color test for LSD.

Microcrystal Tests

• A reagent or series of reagents are added to a suspected drug under carefully controlled conditions so that the drug forms a complex with the reagent(s) and is allowed to slowly recrystallize.

• The appearance, color, shape, and speed of crystallization are characteristic of particular types of drugs.

Chromatography

• Once the preliminary tests have been run on an exhibit, the drug chemist may run a thin-layer chromatography (TLC) test to determine how many substances are present in the exhibit and what they might be.

• Chromatography may be used as an essential part of confirmation by methods such as gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) where compounds that have identical mass spectra may have different retention times.

Quantitative Analysis

• When quantitative analysis of a drug exhibit is called for, gas chromatography (or GC/MS) is almost always used.

• High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) will work just as well on many drugs. To get accurate results by chromatography, an internal standard must always be used.

Confirmation

• Most drug exhibits must be confirmed.

• The most common one in modern drug laboratories is GC/MS.

• The other confirmatory test for drugs is infrared spectrophotometry (usually FTIR).

Clandestine Drug Laboratories – sites where illegal drugs, particularly methamphetamine (meth, ice) are secretly manufactured using improvised materials and methods.