Drugs and driving: a systematic analytical approach.

To collect useful epidemiological data about drug involvement in highway safety, it is essential that sensitive and specific analytical procedures be used to establish the presence of and to determine the concentrations of drugs and metabolites in samples collected from drivers. This paper describes a comprehensive and systematic screening procedure requiring 6 mL of blood, which has been used for the analysis of samples collected from injured and fatally injured drivers. The procedure uses radioimmunoassay, gas chromatography with selective detectors, and high performance liquid chromatography. Drugs and metabolites presumptively identified are then confirmed primarily using gas chromatography--chemical ionization mass spectrometry.