Menegozzo A., Fazzin G., Spampatti M.

Presidio Multizonale di Prevenzione, Azienda U.L.L.S. 12 Veneziana, Via della Montagnola 2, Mestre, Venezia, Italy

The hair samples can be collected under close supervision without embarrassement. They are not subject to evasive maneuvers (false negatives) such as temporary abstention, excessive fluid intake, sobstitution and adulteration.
With this paper the authors suggest a method for extraction of main drugs of abuse and four immunassay methods for screening of opiates, cocaine, cannabis, amphetamines, methadone and buprenorphine.
Drug-free hair specimens were obtained from 12 individuals working in authors' laboratory for drugs screening, hair samples were collected from 40 subjects of the reception center for drug addicts.
After extraction with methanol, dried extracts dissolved in phosphate buffer pH 6, were tested for opiates, methadone, cannabis, with EMIT method (DAU-SYVA); for amphetamine with FPIA method (TDx-ABBOTT), cocaine with rapid immuno-chemical method (TOXIQUICK-C BIOMAR) and for buprenorphine with ELISA (DIAGNOSTIX ).
All positive samples were confirmed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, only one false positive for buprenorphine was detected.