Seizures of illicit substances for personal use in two Italian provinces: analysis of trends by type and purity from 2008 to 2017.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The use of illicit substances represents one of the most difficult problems to confront in the health system. Drug use is a global problem but is not uniform throughout the world, within the same country and changes over time. Therefore, knowing the illicit substances that are used in a territory is essential to better organize health services in that specific geographical area. To this aim, we analysed 4200 samples confiscated from individuals who held them for personal use by police forces in the Italian provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia from 2008 to 2017.

Methods

The suspected samples were screened by gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS); all samples were subsequently analysed by gas c

SUBMITTER: Verri P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6751801 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature