Journal Published Online: 01 March 1995
Volume 40, Issue 2

The Detection of Opiate Drugs in Nontraditional Specimens (Clothing): A Report of Ten Cases

CODEN: JFSCAS

Abstract

We present a series of 10 fatalities involving opiate overdosage, in which morphine, codeine, and 6-monoacetylmorphine were identified and quantified, not only in postmortem biological samples, but also in pieces of underwear taken from the bodies. Small tissue samples (about 1 g) were cut off from several parts of the underwear, stored at ambient temperature until analysis, then extracted by agitation in a mixture of chloroform/2-propanol/n-heptane (60:14:26, v/v/v) and assayed using GC/MS in the single ion monitoring mode. Morphine, codeine and 6-monoacetylmorphine concentrations were in the range 0.02 to 9.27 µg/g. These results indicate that the impregnation of underwear by sweat and sebaceous secretions and/or urine provides detectable levels of the drugs excreted by these ways. Even in the absence of biological samples, assaying pieces of clothing may bring some evidence about the drug abuser status of their owner.

Author Information

Tracqui, A
Institut de Médecine Légale, Facule de Médecine de Strasbourg, Strasbourg Cedex, France
Kintz, P
Institut de Médecine Légale, Facule de Médecine de Strasbourg, Strasbourg Cedex, France
Ludes, B
Institut de Médecine Légale, Facule de Médecine de Strasbourg, Strasbourg Cedex, France
Jamey, C
Institut de Médecine Légale, Facule de Médecine de Strasbourg, Strasbourg Cedex, France
Mangin, P
Institut de Médecine Légale, Facule de Médecine de Strasbourg, Strasbourg Cedex, France
Pages: 3
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Stock #: JFS15354J
ISSN: 0022-1198
DOI: 10.1520/JFS15354J