Drug-Facilitated Crimes

Abstract

Drug-facilitated crimes have been occurring for well over a century. Toxicologists must appreciate the unique aspects of these cases in order to provide meaningful analyses of specimens that are collected from alleged victims of drug-facilitated crimes. The challenges include the drugs used, reporting of the crime, delays in evidence collection, and proper management of the cases. These challenges require laboratories to ensure that their analytical methods are sensitive enough to have a reasonable chance of detecting the presence of the strong, but often low-dose central nervous system (CNS) depressants used in drug-facilitated crimes.