Centre for Forensic Science, University of Technology Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia.
Ecole des Sciences Criminelles, Université de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Int J Drug Policy. 2019 Nov;73:7-15. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.07.025. Epub 2019 Jul 19.
Illicit drug profiling can provide knowledge about illicit drug markets, informing on the level of distribution and its evolution in space and time. Illicit drug profiling is usually limited to impurities originally present in the illicit drug (e.g. alkaloids, co-extracted compounds or by-products). However, the benefit of a comprehensive analysis of cutting agents in drug seizures for law enforcement agencies, intelligence and health policy has not been thoroughly investigated in the literature and is the focus of this research.
This research aims at assessing when and how cutting (i.e. adulteration and dilution) occurs in the supply chain by analysing cocaine and heroin seizures made between 2006 and 2015 in Switzerland.
Cocaine and heroin seizures made along the supply chain by law enforcement agencies in the Western region of Switzerland were investigated for adulteration and dilution. A total number of 7841 cocaine and 3476 heroin specimens coming from 1341 and 721 seizures, respectively, were analysed.
The results show that, for both illicit drugs, adulteration and/or dilution occur before arrival into Switzerland as well as in Switzerland. While cocaine is adulterated and diluted, heroin is only adulterated. Interestingly, the same mixture of adulterants (i.e. caffeine-paracetamol) is used to cut heroin at each step in the supply chain.
Gaining knowledge about adulteration and dilution at different stages in the supply chain enhances our understanding of drug markets. It also highlights differences along the supply chain and in the distribution of both drugs in Switzerland.
非法药物分析可以提供有关非法药物市场的知识，了解分销的水平及其在空间和时间上的演变。非法药物分析通常仅限于最初存在于非法药物中的杂质（例如生物碱、共提取化合物或副产品）。然而，对于执法机构、情报和卫生政策来说，对药物缉获物中切割剂进行全面分析的好处在文献中尚未得到彻底研究，这也是本研究的重点。
本研究旨在通过分析 2006 年至 2015 年间在瑞士缉获的可卡因和海洛因，评估切割（即掺假和稀释）在供应链中何时以及如何发生。
对瑞士西部地区执法机构沿供应链缉获的可卡因和海洛因进行掺假和稀释分析。共分析了来自 1341 次缉获事件的 7841 份可卡因和来自 721 次缉获事件的 3476 份海洛因样本。
结果表明，对于这两种非法药物，掺假和/或稀释不仅发生在进入瑞士之前，也发生在瑞士境内。虽然可卡因被掺假和稀释，但海洛因仅被掺假。有趣的是，在供应链的每个步骤中，用于切割海洛因的都是相同的掺杂物混合物（即咖啡因-对乙酰氨基酚）。
了解供应链不同阶段的掺假和稀释情况，可以增强我们对毒品市场的理解。它还突出了沿供应链以及在瑞士两种药物分布方面的差异。
