Citation

Soltaninejad K, Shadnia S. Int. J. Prev. Med. 2018; 9: 3.

Affiliation

Department of Clinical Toxicology, Excellent Center of Clinical Toxicology, Loghman Hakim Hospital Poison Center, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences)

DOI

10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_22_17

PMID

29416839

PMCID

PMC5787876

Abstract

Substance abuse and its consequences are major health hazards in the world. Opium addiction is a common form of substance abuse in Iran. Adulteration of illegal substances in the process of production and distribution of the drug in black market with many types of materials have been reported. One of the main goals of the adulteration of illegal substances is cutting of the substance for deal and increase of the weight for more benefit. However, adding of adulterating agents to illegal drugs could be considered as a cause of nonspecific and rare toxicity during substance abuse. Although the presence of lead in street-level heroin, marijuana, and amphetamines has been reported from some countries previously, recently, several reports suggested lead poisoning in Iranian opium addicts. Adulteration of opium with lead is a new source of lead poisoning in Iran in which the opium abuse is frequent and it could be a new health problem in the future. In this regard, evaluation of blood lead level would be important for early diagnosis of lead poisoning in opium addicts.

Language: en

Keywords

Iran; lead; opioid-related disorders; opium; poisoning