Abstract

ORTEGA PEREZ, A.. Was this individual poisoned by cocaine? (I): estimations  based on the pharmacokinetic of the drug. Cuad. med. forense [online]. 2003, n.33, pp.5-12. ISSN 1988-611X.

Cocaine is of considerable interest to forensic doctors, because it is widely used, is very toxic and is frequently implicated in acts of violence. To help the expert witness decide on cocaine intoxication the available pharmacokinetic data are summarized here. The drug can be absorbed through different routes. Measurable blood concentrations are reached almost immediately with maximum concentrations within minutes, or within an hour depending on the route of administration. Depending on the study from which the data are drawn, the half-life of cocaine appears to be between 40 and 90 minutes. The substance disappears from the blood over several hours, but can be detected in urine for 24 hours or more. The correlations between blood cocaine con-centrations and those in the brain or bile can help estimate the dose absorbed and the time elapsed since its intake. In short, current data suggest that the concentrations of cocaine observed are so variable that by themselves no definite conclusions can be drawn regarding an individual's intoxication based merely on the concentration of cocaine noted in one sample. In this present communication some suggestions are provided for increasing the available data and for improving the estimation as well as the quality of the clinical judgement.

Keywords : Aspiration; cocaine; expert witness; half-life; inhalation; injection; pharmacokinetics; variations.

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