Análisis de tóxicos en el pelo asociados a adicción en la Región de Murcia

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. Addiction to toxic substances is a problem of social relevance, not only because of the high number of deaths it causes each year and, because of all the associated repercussions and factors such as: economic, violence or crime ones. Some people who suffer from substance abuse problems often incur in various types of illicit acts, establishing that way a nexus between drug dependence and criminality. To determine if a person was under the influence of drugs when they committed a criminal act, judicial bodies rely on different techniques that allow them to determine this situation, among them can be found hair toxicological analysis. OBJECTIVES. A descriptive study was carried out on the results of the toxicological reports done in hair, so as to find out which were the main substances associated with the pattern of consumption in the Region of Murcia. Moreover, the evolution of the substance abuse in the stipulated years (2018-2019) was determined. However we also wanted to take into accounts other issues such as the possible existence of dual pathology, the association of substances, the link between the type of expert request and the consumption of substances of abuse and the relationship between the criminal act and substance consumption. MATERIAL AND METHOD. A cross-sectional, observational, retrospective and descriptive study was conducted. The population scope was made up of the total number of toxicological reports carried out in hair by the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Murcia. The final sample size (after inclusion and exclusion criteria) was 490 reports. A descriptive and inferential analysis of the sample was executed using the IBM SPSS 25.0 statistical programme through acorrelation between variables and logistic regression. RESULTS. This investigation showed that there are statistically significant correlations between "presence of cannabis in hair" and cocaine (p<0.004), benzodiazepines (p<0.001) and opiates (p<0.019). On the other hand, "presence of cocaine in hair" was correlated with the variable year (p<0.003) and benzodiazepines (p<0.001). "Presence of benzodiazepines" was statistically significantly correlated with opiates (p<0.019), year (p<0.028), borderline personality disorder (p<0.001) and criminal act (p<0.008). CONCLUSIONS. The main substances associated with the pattern of consumption in the Region of Murcia during the period 2018-2019 were cannabis, cocaine, benzodiazepines and opiates, being the most common association, cannabis-cocaine, cannabis-benzodiazepines and benzodiazepines-opiates. Cocaine and benzodiazepine use increased in the period under study. Together with substance abuse disorder borderline personality disorder was the mental disorder most frequently associated. Cannabis use was associated with applications for drug addiction and imputability prosecutions. Regarding the possible association between consumptiom and crime, no clear statistical association was found between crime and substance. In this regard, it should be important to take into consideration that the study is based on hair analysis carried out after the criminal offence and, in many cases, after the start of drug treatment