Joint SOFT-TIAFT Young Scientist Meeting 2011-09-25 Summary Report

Salon 1-4, Marriott Marquis, San Francisco
14:00 to 15:45 and 16:15 to 18:00

Attendance: 122 young scientist, including 6 YSC members (Jochen Beyer, Federica Bortolotti, Simon Elliott, Madeleine Montgomery, Frank Peters, Sarah Wille) and SOFT Young Forensic Toxicologist (YFT) committee members

This year the YS meeting was for the first time held as a joint meeting with the newly formed group of YFT in SOFT. With an attendance of 122 young scientists the turnout was fantastic. Jayne Thatcher (SOFT) and Frank Peters (TIAFT) moderated the YS symposium, that covered two major topics, one being DUID legislation and the other being the rapidly changing new drugs sold as incense, bath salts or simply as legal highs.

The first presentation given by Sarah Urfer (US) was dedicated to DUID legislation in the US and her take home message was that DUID legislation not only differs from state to state but sometimes even between counties. Sarah Wille (Belgium) then provided an overview on DUID legislation in Europe and other parts of the world such as East Asia. Her talk was complemented by Jochen Beyer (Australia) who talked about the situation in Australia. The talks were followed by a lively discussion, one of the major topic being whether legal limits or cut-off could be harmonized throughout the world. While everyone agreed this would be useful from a scientific point view, the chance for achieving this goal was considered small as long as there is no harmonization of legislation.

In the second part of the meeting Sherri Kacinko (US) spoke about emerging drug trends in the US mainly focusing on the increasing use of synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones. Simon Elliott (UK) followed up with the newest trends in his county which has been the origin of new drug trends in the past. To conclude the presentations on this topic, Frank Peters (Germany) reported some results on the prevalence of new drugs in DUID cases in his laboratory. Once again, a lively discussion ensued in which the participants shared their experiences and questions with each other.

The last two presentations were dedicated to two of last year’s award winners. Dirk Wissenbach, winner of the TIAFT best oral presentation award, presented his work on the development of an LC-MSn screening procedure covering not only parent drugs but also metabolites. Nahoko Uchiyama, last year’s Springer best poster awardee, concluded the presentations with her talk on the effects of synthetic cannabinoids on EEG power spectra and locomotor activity in rats.

The YSC was very happy to have again received many submissions for the YS best oral (22) and best poster (19) award this year and even more so about the 14(!) entries for the best published paper award.

The YS Committee