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Challenges in Drug Surveillance: Strengthening the Analysis of New Psychoactive Substances by Harmonizing Drug Checking Services in Proficiency Testing

Background: Drug checking is a proven harm reduction strategy and provides real-time information on the market of new psychoactive substances (NPS). It combines chemical analysis of samples with direct engagement with people who use drugs (PWUD), giving the ability to increase preparedness and respo...

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Autores principales: Balcaen, Margot, Ventura, Mireia, Gil, Cristina, Luf, Anton, Martins, Daniel, Cunha, Mar, Tögel-Lins, Karsten, Wolf, Danny, Blanckaert, Peter, Deconinck, Eric
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10002093/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36901637
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054628
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author Balcaen, Margot
Ventura, Mireia
Gil, Cristina
Luf, Anton
Martins, Daniel
Cunha, Mar
Tögel-Lins, Karsten
Wolf, Danny
Blanckaert, Peter
Deconinck, Eric
author_facet Balcaen, Margot
Ventura, Mireia
Gil, Cristina
Luf, Anton
Martins, Daniel
Cunha, Mar
Tögel-Lins, Karsten
Wolf, Danny
Blanckaert, Peter
Deconinck, Eric
author_sort Balcaen, Margot
collection PubMed
description Background: Drug checking is a proven harm reduction strategy and provides real-time information on the market of new psychoactive substances (NPS). It combines chemical analysis of samples with direct engagement with people who use drugs (PWUD), giving the ability to increase preparedness and responsiveness towards NPS. Next to that, it supports rapid identification of potential unwitting consumption. However, NPS cause a toxicological battle for the researchers, as factors such as the unpredictability and quick shift of the market complicate the detection. Methods: To evaluate challenges posed towards drug checking services, proficiency testing was set up to evaluate existing analytical techniques and investigate the capability to correctly identify circulating NPS. Twenty blind substances, covering the most common categories of substances, were analyzed according to the existing protocols of the existing drug checking services, including several analytical methods such as gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography with diode array detector (LC-DAD). Results: The proficiency test scores range from 80 to 97.5% accuracy. The most common issues and errors are mainly unidentified compounds, presumably due to no up-to-date libraries, and/ or confusion between structural isomers, such as 3- and 4-chloroethcathinone, or structural analogs, such as MIPLA (N-methyl-N-isopropyl lysergamide) and LSD (D-lysergic acid diethylamide). Conclusions: The participating drug checking services have access to adequate analytical tools to provide feedback to drug users and provide up-to-date information on NPS.
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spelling pubmed-100020932023-03-11 Challenges in Drug Surveillance: Strengthening the Analysis of New Psychoactive Substances by Harmonizing Drug Checking Services in Proficiency Testing Balcaen, Margot Ventura, Mireia Gil, Cristina Luf, Anton Martins, Daniel Cunha, Mar Tögel-Lins, Karsten Wolf, Danny Blanckaert, Peter Deconinck, Eric Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Drug checking is a proven harm reduction strategy and provides real-time information on the market of new psychoactive substances (NPS). It combines chemical analysis of samples with direct engagement with people who use drugs (PWUD), giving the ability to increase preparedness and responsiveness towards NPS. Next to that, it supports rapid identification of potential unwitting consumption. However, NPS cause a toxicological battle for the researchers, as factors such as the unpredictability and quick shift of the market complicate the detection. Methods: To evaluate challenges posed towards drug checking services, proficiency testing was set up to evaluate existing analytical techniques and investigate the capability to correctly identify circulating NPS. Twenty blind substances, covering the most common categories of substances, were analyzed according to the existing protocols of the existing drug checking services, including several analytical methods such as gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography with diode array detector (LC-DAD). Results: The proficiency test scores range from 80 to 97.5% accuracy. The most common issues and errors are mainly unidentified compounds, presumably due to no up-to-date libraries, and/ or confusion between structural isomers, such as 3- and 4-chloroethcathinone, or structural analogs, such as MIPLA (N-methyl-N-isopropyl lysergamide) and LSD (D-lysergic acid diethylamide). Conclusions: The participating drug checking services have access to adequate analytical tools to provide feedback to drug users and provide up-to-date information on NPS. MDPI 2023-03-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10002093/ /pubmed/36901637 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054628 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Balcaen, Margot
Ventura, Mireia
Gil, Cristina
Luf, Anton
Martins, Daniel
Cunha, Mar
Tögel-Lins, Karsten
Wolf, Danny
Blanckaert, Peter
Deconinck, Eric
Challenges in Drug Surveillance: Strengthening the Analysis of New Psychoactive Substances by Harmonizing Drug Checking Services in Proficiency Testing
title Challenges in Drug Surveillance: Strengthening the Analysis of New Psychoactive Substances by Harmonizing Drug Checking Services in Proficiency Testing
title_full Challenges in Drug Surveillance: Strengthening the Analysis of New Psychoactive Substances by Harmonizing Drug Checking Services in Proficiency Testing
title_fullStr Challenges in Drug Surveillance: Strengthening the Analysis of New Psychoactive Substances by Harmonizing Drug Checking Services in Proficiency Testing
title_full_unstemmed Challenges in Drug Surveillance: Strengthening the Analysis of New Psychoactive Substances by Harmonizing Drug Checking Services in Proficiency Testing
title_short Challenges in Drug Surveillance: Strengthening the Analysis of New Psychoactive Substances by Harmonizing Drug Checking Services in Proficiency Testing
title_sort challenges in drug surveillance: strengthening the analysis of new psychoactive substances by harmonizing drug checking services in proficiency testing
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10002093/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36901637
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054628
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