THE DETECTION OF OPIATE DRUGS IN NONTRADITIONAL SPECIMENS (CLOTHING) - A REPORT OF 10 CASES

We present a series of 10 fatalities involving opiate overdosage, in w hich morphine, codeine, and 6-monoacetylmorphine were identified and q uantified, not only in postmortem biological samples, but also in piec es of underwear taken from the bodies. Small tissue samples (about 1 g ) were cut off from several parts of the underwear, stored at ambient temperature until analysis, then extracted by agitation in a mixture o f chloroform/2-propanol/n-heptane (60:14:26, v/v/v) and assayed using GC/MS in the single ion monitoring mode. Morphine, codeine and 6-monoa cetylmorphine concentrations were in the range 0.02 to 9.27 mu g/g. Th ese results indicate that the impregnation of underwear by sweat and s ebaceous secretions and/or urine provides detectable levels of the dru gs excreted by these ways. Even in the absence of biological samples, assaying pieces of clothing may bring some evidence about the drug abu ser status of their owner.