Cross-reactivities of 39 new amphetamine designer drugs on three abuse drugs urinary screening tests

Abstract

The detection of illicit drugs is important both in the management of substance misuse and in the postmortem identification of drug abuse. Urinary screening assays have been available for many years, and have been successfully utilized for detecting misuse. Urine remains the biological tool of choice to verify drug-free behavior because of noninvasive sampling and high concentrations of drugs and metabolites. Herein we describe the cross-reactivities of 39 new amphetamine designer drugs on three different on-site abuse drugs urinary screening tests (Screen®7, SureStep™, InstAlert™), which are commonly available in forensic laboratories and in the clinical environment. They are chromatographic immunoassay tests for the qualitative detection of amphetamine, methamphetamine, and methylenedioxymethamphetamine at the recommended cutoff according to Italian legislation (500 ng/ml). The speed and sensitivity of these tests have made them the most widely accepted method to screen urine for drugs of abuse.