Exploring Potential Bellwethers for Drug-Related Mortality in the General Population: A Case for Sentinel Surveillance of Trends in Drug Use among Nightclub/Festival Attendees

Palamar, Joseph J.; Le, Austin; Rutherford, Caroline; Keyes, Katherine M.

doi:10.1080/10826084.2022.2151315

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 39 publications

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“…Most use of common party drugs such as ketamine and MDMA were detected in the Italian sample but we must keep in mind that these were individuals receiving harm reduction services associated with nightlife. People who attend nightclubs in particular tend to report higher prevalence of use of such drugs than the general population [38][39][40]. Prevalence of past-year ketamine use among young adults is estimated to be <1% in both the US and in Europe [14,41], although seizures of the drug appear to be increasing at a similar rate [14,42].…”

Section: Testing For Common Drugsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of fentanyl, synthetic opioids, and ketamine in hair specimens from purposive samples of American and Italian populations

Salomone,

Galletto,

Massano

et al. 2023

Journal of Forensic Sciences

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With the current crisis related to the diffusion of fentanyl and other novel opioids in several countries and populations, new and effective approaches are needed to better elucidate the phenomenon. In this context, hair testing offers a unique perspective in the investigation of drug consumption, producing useful information in terms of exposure to psychoactive substances. In this research, we applied targeted ultra‐high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) analytical methods to detect novel synthetic and prescription opioids and other common controlled psychoactive drugs in the keratin matrix. A total of 120 hair samples were analyzed from the United States (US) and Italy, segmented when longer than 6 cm, and then analyzed. In the 60 samples (83 segments in total) analyzed from a purposive sample of data collected in the US, fentanyl was detected in 14 cases (16.9%), with no detection of nitazens or brorphine. We also detected fentanyl metabolites, despropionyl‐p‐fluorofentanyl, and prescription opioids. In the 60 samples collected in Italy (91 segments in total), ketamine was the most prevalent compound detected (in 41 cases; 45.1%), with ketamine demonstrating a strong correlation with detection of amphetamines and MDMA, likely due to co‐use of these substances in recreational contexts. Several common drugs were also detected but no exposure to fentanyl or its analogs were detected. Results of this retrospective exploration of drug use add to increasing evidence that hair testing can serve as a useful adjunct to epidemiology studies that seek to determine biologically confirmed use and exposure in high‐risk populations.

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