TY - JOUR PY - 2019// TI - Murdered while under the influence of 3-MeO-PCP JO - International journal of legal medicine A1 - Kintz, Pascal A1 - Ameline, Alice A1 - Walch, Alexis A1 - Farrugia, Audrey A1 - Raul, Jean-Sebastien SP - 475 EP - 478 VL - 133 IS - 2 N2 - The abuse of new psychoactive substances (NPS) has been dramatically increasing all around the world since the late 2000s. The availability of hundreds of NPS in the past decade is challenging for both public health and global drug policies. A 39-year-old woman, known as a multidrug addict, was murdered by her partner by ligature strangulation. A comprehensive toxicological screening by gas chromatography and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry revealed the simultaneous presence of ethanol (1.37 g/L), diazepam (157 ng/mL) and nordiazepam (204 ng/mL), cocaine (25 ng/mL) and benzoylecgonine (544 ng/mL), and (3-methoxy-(1-(1-phenylcyclohexyl)piperidine) or 3-MeO-PCP, a dissociative hallucinogen anesthetic drug. Concentrations of 3-MeO-PCP were 63, 64, and 94 ng/mL in femoral blood, bile, and urine, respectively. Hair tested also positive for 3-MeO-PCP on 3 × 2-cm segments at 731, 893, and 846 pg/mg, indicating long-term abuse of the drug. This seems to be the first ever reported hair concentrations. Major impairment of the victim, including visual hallucinations and alteration of behavior, was attributed to the mixture of all the drugs, with a major contribution of 3-MeO-PCP. The toxicological findings were compared to the few reports available in the medical literature.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0937-9827 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00414-018-1901-x ID - ref1 ER -