Erfahrungen beim drogenscreening durch polizeibeamte mit DrugWipe®II und chemisch-toxikologischen untersuchungen von blutproben

In the samples pre-tested with DrugWipe®II, cannabinoids could be detected in 56.6 % of cases, amphetamines in 29.8 %, opiates in 15.8 % and cocaine/benzoylecgonin in 14.5 %. Unexpectedly high, however, was the per-centage of blood samples (14.2 %) that were shown to contain no drugs and/or their metabolites despite positive pretests. However, the results for the opiate subgroup indicated that DrugWipe®II could be a suitable test for drug screening. As a pre-test to detect consumption of opiates it is no worse than a (rapid) urine test or an Inspec® blood test. Nonetheless DrugWipe®II is neither sensitive nor specific enough in testing for cocaine, amphetamines or cannabis in order to be used on-site by police. Amongst the amphetamines only the methylendioxyamphetamines are detected reliably, while amphetamine is not. On the other hand there were also many false positive DrugWipe®II tests amongst the amphetamines. This also applied to cannabis. One reason - apart from non specific reactions - could be passive consumption. The results of the investigations presented here seem to suggest that there is no sound scientific basis for restricting investigation requests to the parameters suggested as positive by pre-tests. Neither sensitivity nor specificity of DrugWipe®II is good enough to be the only basis of such limited and specific analysis.