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Qualitative, quantitative and temporal study of cutting agents for cocaine and heroin over 9 years.
Journal article

Qualitative, quantitative and temporal study of cutting agents for cocaine and heroin over 9 years.

  • Broséus J Ecole des sciences criminelles, Faculté de droit, des sciences criminelles et d'administration publique, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address: julian.broseus@unil.ch.
  • Gentile N Ecole des sciences criminelles, Faculté de droit, des sciences criminelles et d'administration publique, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • Bonadio Pont F Ecole des sciences criminelles, Faculté de droit, des sciences criminelles et d'administration publique, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • Garcia Gongora JM Ecole des sciences criminelles, Faculté de droit, des sciences criminelles et d'administration publique, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • Gasté L Ecole des sciences criminelles, Faculté de droit, des sciences criminelles et d'administration publique, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • Esseiva P Ecole des sciences criminelles, Faculté de droit, des sciences criminelles et d'administration publique, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland.
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  • 2015-10-09
Published in:
  • Forensic science international. - 2015
Adulterant
Criminal market
Diluent
Drug profiling
Illicit drug
Strategic intelligence
Cocaine
Drug Contamination
Drug Trafficking
Heroin
Humans
Illicit Drugs
Switzerland
English Forensic laboratories mainly focus on the qualification and the quantitation of the illicit drug under analysis as both aspects are used for judiciary purposes. Therefore, information related to cutting agents (adulterants and diluents) detected in illicit drugs is limited in the forensic literature. This article discusses the type and frequency of adulterants and diluents detected in more than 6000 cocaine specimens and 3000 heroin specimens, confiscated in western Switzerland from 2006 to 2014. The results show a homogeneous and quite unchanging adulteration for heroin, while for cocaine it could be characterised as heterogeneous and relatively dynamic. Furthermore, the results indicate that dilution affects more cocaine than heroin. Therefore, the results provided by this study tend to reveal differences between the respective structures of production or distribution of cocaine and heroin. This research seeks to promote the systematic analysis of cutting agents by forensic laboratories. Collecting and processing data related to the presence of cutting agents in illicit drug specimens produces relevant information to understand and to compare the structure of illicit drug markets.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/259256
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