Simultaneous screening for and determination of 128 date-rape drugs in urine by gas chromatography–electron ionization-mass spectrometry

Date-rape drugs (DRDs) are used for the purpose of “drugging” unsuspected victims and raping or robbing them while under the influence of the drug. The wide variety of substances used for criminal purposes, their low concentrations in body fluids and, often, a long time delay between the event and clinical examination make comprehensive screening analysis of biological materials collected from crime victims for the presence of these drugs very difficult. Detection of a drug used to facilitate sexual assault in biological fluids can be very important evidence of a committed crime. The purpose of this study was to develop a simple GC–EI-MS screening procedure for date-rape drugs in urine. Target analytes were isolated by solid-phase extraction. 2-mL urine samples were extracted and then derivatized by using BSTFA + 1%TMCS reagent. Detection of all compounds was based on full-scan mass spectra and for each compound one ion was chosen for further quantification. The method allowed the simultaneous screening, detection and quantification of 128 compounds from different groups (number of compounds): opioids (20), amphetamines (11), GHB and related products (3), hallucinogens (9), benzodiazepines (18), antihistamines (9), antidepressants (14), selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (4), antipsychotics (7), barbiturates (7), other sedatives (5), muscle relaxants (2) and other drugs (19). The procedure can easily be expanded to encompass more substances. The developed method appeared to be suitable for screening for the target DRDs. The procedure was successfully applied to the analysis of authentic urine samples collected from victims of rapes and other crimes in routine casework.