Driving under the influence (DUID): Prevalence of drugs in oral fluid

Abstract

Abstract Nowadays, detection of drugs of abuse is a usual practice in the legal field due to its incidence in several proceedings. Saliva is a matrix of increasing utility as it is a non-invasive sample that has been tested in international projects such as ROSITA and DRUID. Objectives: the study focused on the study of prevalence of drugs of abuse in a sample population of drivers of motor vehicles.3468 oral fluid samples came from local police activities, during the years 2007 until June 2010 in Barcelona (Spain). Methods: drivers suspected of driving under the influence of drugs had to comply with an analytical road side drug testing. A commercial kit immunoassay based was used (Cozart® DDS 801). Kits with positive results to any drug, 24.59%, were submitted to the Catalonia Institute of Legal Medicine, with an additional saliva sample ( as indicated by Cozart® DDS 801 provider) for confirmation by gas- chromatography mass- spectrometry (GC/MS). Drugs detected by the test Cozart® included:9 tetrahydrocannabinol, cocaine, opiates, methamphetamines amphetamines Results: after confirmation results showed a cannabis prevalence in 2064 samples (59.5%), cocaine in 1952 samples (56.2%) opiates in 258 (7.4%) amphetamines in 69 samples (1.9%) and methamphetamines in 57 (1.6%). No quantitative analysis was achieved. Conclusions: Results show that cannabis is the most prevalent in the study, followed by cocaine. Data are valuable in order to initiate sanctionary proceedings in Spanish legislation and also as signs of recreational drugs consumption which provide information to both epidemiology and public health.