Cook County Department of Public Health, 7556 Jackson Blvd, Forest Park, IL, 60130, United States.
British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, #400-1045 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2A9, Canada.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2021 Nov 1;228:108976. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108976. Epub 2021 Aug 28.
Opioid overdose deaths in the United States continue to rise, with the majority of deaths involving fentanyl. Drug checking has been used in Europe and Canada to assess adulteration of the illegal drug supply, but faces legal barriers in the United States. We are presenting information from a pilot mobile program offering drug checking services to participants of a harm reduction program in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Drug checking services were provided at five mobile outreach and one fixed-point drop-in location in Chicago, IL, between March 2019 and August 2020. Three technologies were used: a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectrometer, a handheld high-pressure mass spectrometer (HPMS), and immunoassay fentanyl test strips (FTS). We report on results generated by this combination of technology during the study period.
During the study period, 422 total samples were tested, the majority of which were sold as dope/heroin (66.7 %). Of the 282 samples sold as dope/heroin, 12.8 % matched to fentanyl on the FTIR, 47.5 % had fentanyl identified on the HPMS, and 57.8 % produced a positive FTS.
This pilot program demonstrated the feasibility of using three technologies to assess for the presence of fentanyl in user-submitted samples, revealed discordant results from the technologies, and provided information on the local drug market.
美国的阿片类药物过量死亡人数持续上升，其中大多数死亡事件涉及芬太尼。药物检测已在欧洲和加拿大用于评估非法毒品供应的掺假情况，但在美国面临法律障碍。我们提供了来自美国伊利诺伊州芝加哥一个减少伤害计划中参与者接受毒品检测服务的试点移动项目的信息。
2019 年 3 月至 2020 年 8 月期间，在芝加哥的五个流动外展和一个固定点吸毒点提供了毒品检测服务。使用了三种技术：傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）光谱仪、手持式高压质谱仪（HPMS）和免疫测定芬太尼检测条（FTS）。我们报告了研究期间该技术组合产生的结果。
在研究期间，共测试了 422 个总样本，其中大多数被销售为海洛因（66.7%）。在 282 个被销售为海洛因的样本中，12.8%在 FTIR 上与芬太尼匹配，47.5%在 HPMS 上识别出芬太尼，57.8%产生阳性 FTS。
该试点计划证明了使用三种技术评估用户提交样本中是否存在芬太尼的可行性，揭示了技术之间的不一致结果，并提供了有关当地毒品市场的信息。
