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Review
. 2020 Jan;135(1):6-10.
doi: 10.1177/0033354919887741. Epub 2019 Nov 18.

The Emerging Role of Toxic Adulterants in Street Drugs in the US Illicit Opioid Crisis

Vanila M Singh  1   2 , Thom Browne  3 , Joshua Montgomery  1
Affiliations
Review

The Emerging Role of Toxic Adulterants in Street Drugs in the US Illicit Opioid Crisis

Vanila M Singh et al. Public Health Rep. 2020 Jan.
No abstract available

Keywords: adulterants; cocaine; illicit fentanyl; opioid crisis; opioids; pharmacological active components.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure.
Figure.
Number of pharmacologically active components identified in street drug samples from Vermont (n = 311) and Kentucky (n = 120), 2017. Illicitly manufactured drugs commonly contain additional pharmacologically active components that are added during the manufacturing process, some of which are known as adulterants or cutting agents. Colombo Plan Secretariat scientists, in conjunction with NMS Labs (Horsham, PA), used quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry to test opioid and cocaine samples for adulterants and other pharmacologically active components and found that all street drug samples contained ≥1 additional toxic adulterant, fentanyl, another controlled drug, or an impurity from the heroin-manufacturing process. Of the 311 samples collected in Vermont, 301 (97%) contained >1 additional pharmacologically active component, 259 (83%) contained ≥5 additional components, and 47 (15%) contained ≥9 additional components. Of the 120 samples collected in Kentucky, 107 (89%) contained >1 additional pharmacologically active component, 38 (32%) contained ≥5 additional components, and 17 (14%) contained ≥9 additional components.
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