Distinguishing between Contact and Administration of Heroin from a Single Fingerprint using High Resolution Mass Spectrometry.

Melanie Bailey,Roger Webb,Brian Gibson,Catia Costa,Derek Stevenson,Mahado Ismail

doi:10.1093/jat/bkz088

Abstract

Fingerprints have been proposed as a promising new matrix for drug testing. In previous work it has been shown that a fingerprint can be used to distinguish between drug users and nonusers. Herein, we look at the possibility of using a fingerprint to distinguish between dermal contact and administration of heroin. Fingerprint samples were collected from (i) 10 patients attending a drug rehabilitation clinic, (ii) 50 nondrug users and (iii) participants who touched 2 mg street heroin, before and after various hand cleaning procedures. Oral fluid was also taken from the patients. All samples were analyzed using a liquid chromatography—high resolution mass spectrometry method validated in previous work for heroin and 6-AM. The HRMS data were analyzed retrospectively for morphine, codeine, 6-acetylcodeine and noscapine. Heroin and 6-AM were detected in all fingerprint samples produced from contact with heroin, even after hand washing. In contrast, morphine, acetylcodeine and noscapine were successfully removed after hand washing. In patient samples, the detection of morphine, noscapine and acetylcodeine (alongside heroin and 6-AM) gave a closer agreement to patient testimony on whether they had recently used heroin than the detection of heroin and 6-AM alone. This research highlights the importance of washing hands prior to donating a fingerprint sample to distinguish recent contact with heroin from heroin use.

Highlights

We have shown in previous work that provided the fingers of donors are washed prior to deposition of a sample, the levels of cocaine and heroin detected in the fingerprints of drug users generally exceed that of “normal” environmental levels, enabling a cut-off level to be set up to distinguish drug use from environmental contact [4]
Consistent with our previous study [4], the data from fingerprints of 50 nondrug users show that none of the analytes of interest are detected in fingerprints collected after hand washing
The detection of drug metabolites from a contact only scenario (Scenario 1) has not been reported before. This finding shows that it is imperative that hands are cleaned prior to obtaining fingerprint samples if there is a need to make a distinction between heroin contact and heroin administration, since it was not possible to find a ratio of parent drug:metabolite that could be used to distinguish the two donor groups

Summary

Introduction

The detection of illicit drugs in fingerprint samples has been widely reported, and there is a growing body of evidence to support the concept that the detection of drug compounds and their metabolites in fingerprint samples can be used to show that a donor has either consumed or handled illicit drugs [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. We have shown in previous work that provided the fingers of donors are washed prior to deposition of a sample, the levels of cocaine and heroin detected in the fingerprints of drug users generally exceed that of “normal” (based on donors from at a UK university) environmental levels, enabling a cut-off level to be set up to distinguish drug use from environmental contact [4]. Within this framework, we have shown that shaking hands with a drug user does not give a false positive result. Environmental contamination of cocaine and heroin do not appear to create a problem for fingerprintbased drug testing provided that samples are donated and handled appropriately

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion