New psychoactive versus conventional stimulants - a ten-year review of casework in Hungary

Abstract

Biological samples (including urine, blood and body tissues), sent to the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Pécs, South-West Hungary, in the period 2010-2019. High performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD); supercritical fluid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (SFC-MS/MS). During the nine-year period between 2010 and 2019, we found new stimulants in 973 (21.1%) cases, and conventional stimulants in 658 (14.2%) cases (out of 4604 analyses -100%- of samples sent to the laboratory for toxicology screening). 594 (12.9%) of all cases were post mortem analyses. The new drugs we've detected could be classified into three groups based on their chemical structure: cathinones (in 960 from our cases), substituted phenethylamines (8), and tryptamines (5). The most frequently identified new psychoactive stimulants were (in the order of decreasing frequency): pentedrone (262), mephedrone (188), N-ethylhexedrone (126), methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV; 98), α-pyrrolidinopentiophenone (alpha-PVP; 93), 4-CMC (35). The new substances were detected in highest proportion in 2011; by 2018, the number of conventional drugs exceeded the new stimulants in our cases. According to the data of the Hungarian seizures, the decrease was predictable: from 2015, the seizures of traditional stimulants exceeded the seizures of new stimulants. In 2019 the new stimulants were dominated again among the detected substances in the samples.