Aim: To compare the main and additive components of heroin trafficked in the Stateof Kuwait during 2012 with those components of heroin traded recently in the country during 2016 and 2017, and to provide a satisfactory explanation for the increase in deaths among heroin addicts during the period2011 -2018.
Study Design: Selected samples of non-pure powder heroin seized in Kuwait during 2016 and 2017, with pure heroin and a set of10 pure different heroin component standards, all have been quantitatively analyzed in the Forensic Laboratories.
Place and Duration of Study: All qualitative and quantitative analyses for 2016 and 2017 samples were conducted in the Forensic Laboratories of the General Department of Criminal Evidences – Ministry of Interior – State of Kuwait.
Methodology: By using Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) to qualitative and quantitative analysis have been made on a total of hundred samples of non-pure powder heroin seized in Kuwait during the years 2016 and 2017, in addition to ten pure standards.
Results: The concentration of the diacetylmorphine (active substance of heroin) in Kuwait during the year 2017 are much higher than the concentration during the year 2016. The additive substances (adulterants) for the years 2016 and 2017, are shared with the year 2012 by the component's paracetamol, caffeine and diazepam with different concentrations. But new adulterants in recent years are recorded in samples 2016 and 2017, including methamphetamine, dextromethorphan, and methylphenidate which is absent in 2016 samples.
Conclusion: The concentration % of illicit heroin traded in Kuwait as diacetylmorphine has increase from 10% to 50% for year 2016, and further from 30% - 70% for year 2017, which marks identified a substantial rising in the purity of heroin. In addition, additive substances in the two years include paracetamol (acetaminophen), caffeine and diazepam, previously recorded in 2012. However, totally different new adulterates are recorded in 2016 and 2017 samples, including methamphetamine, dextromethorphan, and methylphenidate. All new three adulterates are detected in quite a few numbers of samples with methylphenidate recorded in a very low concentration of 0. 01 mg. Both new adulterates and higher purity of heroin constitute the main reasons for rising the rate of deaths between heroin addicts in recent years. Also, recent UN reports (12,18) provide evidence that the GC countries Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan are still manufacturing and trading the above mentioned new adulterates.
Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization and Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Detection: Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of West Australian Sandalwood Oil
