PMID- 20211534
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20100818
LR  - 20131121
IS  - 1872-6283 (Electronic)
IS  - 0379-0738 (Linking)
VI  - 198
IP  - 1-3
DP  - 2010 May 20
TI  - First nationwide study on driving under the influence of drugs in Switzerland.
PG  - 11-6
LID - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.02.014 [doi]
AB  - In Switzerland, a two-tier system based on impairment by any psychoactive 
      substances which affect the capacity to drive safely and zero tolerance for 
      certain illicit drugs came into force on 1 January 2005. According to the new 
      legislation, the offender is sanctioned if Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol THC is 
      >or=1.5ng/ml or amphetamine, methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine 
      (MDMA), 3,4-methylenedioxyethylamphetamine (MDEA), cocaine, free morphine are 
      >or=15ng/ml in whole blood (confidence interval+/-30%). For all other 
      psychoactive substances, impairment must be proven in applying the so-called 
      "three pillars expertise". At the same time the legal blood alcohol concentration 
      (BAC) limit for driving was lowered from 0.80 to 0.50g/kg. The purpose of this 
      study was to analyze the prevalence of drugs in the first year after the 
      introduction of the revision of the Swiss Traffic Law in the population of 
      drivers suspected of driving under the influence of drugs (DUID). A database was 
      developed to collect the data from all DUID cases submitted by the police or the 
      Justice to the eight Swiss authorized laboratories between January and December 
      2005. Data collected were anonymous and included the age, gender, date and time 
      of the event, the type of vehicle, the circumstances, the sampling time and the 
      results of all the performed toxicological analyses. The focus was explicitly on 
      DUID; cases of drivers who were suspected to be under the influence of ethanol 
      only were not considered. The final study population included 4794 DUID offenders 
      (4243 males, 543 females). The mean age of all drivers was 31+/-12 years (range 
      14-92 years). One or more psychoactive drugs were detected in 89% of all analyzed 
      blood samples. In 11% (N=530) of the samples, neither alcohol nor drugs were 
      present. The most frequently encountered drugs in whole blood were cannabinoids 
      (48% of total number of cases), ethanol (35%), cocaine (25%), opiates (10%), 
      amphetamines (7%), benzodiazepines (6%) and methadone (5%). Other medicinal drugs 
      such as antidepressants and benzodiazepine-like were detected less frequently. 
      Poly-drug use was prevalent but it may be underestimated because the laboratories 
      do not always analyze all drugs in a blood sample. This first Swiss study points 
      out that DUID is a serious problem on the roads in Switzerland. Further 
      investigations will show if this situation has changed in the following years.
FAU - Senna, Maria-Cristina
AU  - Senna MC
AD  - University Center of Legal Medicine, Geneva and Lausanne, Unit of Forensic 
      Chemistry and Toxicology, Rue du Bugnon 21, Lausanne, Switzerland. 
      Maria-Cristina.Senna@chuv.ch
FAU - Augsburger, Marc
AU  - Augsburger M
FAU - Aebi, Beat
AU  - Aebi B
FAU - Briellmann, Thomas A
AU  - Briellmann TA
FAU - Donze, Nicolas
AU  - Donze N
FAU - Dubugnon, Jean-Luc
AU  - Dubugnon JL
FAU - Iten, Peter X
AU  - Iten PX
FAU - Staub, Christian
AU  - Staub C
FAU - Sturm, Walter
AU  - Sturm W
FAU - Sutter, Karl
AU  - Sutter K
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20100307
PL  - Ireland
TA  - Forensic Sci Int
JT  - Forensic science international
JID - 7902034
RN  - 0 (Amphetamines)
RN  - 0 (Antidepressive Agents)
RN  - 0 (Cannabinoids)
RN  - 0 (Central Nervous System Depressants)
RN  - 0 (Narcotics)
RN  - 12794-10-4 (Benzodiazepines)
RN  - 3K9958V90M (Ethanol)
RN  - I5Y540LHVR (Cocaine)
RN  - UC6VBE7V1Z (Methadone)
SB  - IM
MH  - Adolescent
MH  - Adult
MH  - Age Distribution
MH  - Aged
MH  - Aged, 80 and over
MH  - Amphetamines/analysis
MH  - Antidepressive Agents/analysis
MH  - Automobile Driving/*legislation & jurisprudence
MH  - Benzodiazepines/analysis
MH  - Cannabinoids/analysis
MH  - Central Nervous System Depressants/analysis
MH  - Cocaine/analysis
MH  - Ethanol/analysis
MH  - Female
MH  - Forensic Toxicology
MH  - Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Methadone/analysis
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - Narcotics/analysis
MH  - Prevalence
MH  - Sex Distribution
MH  - Substance Abuse Detection
MH  - Substance-Related Disorders/diagnosis/*epidemiology
MH  - Switzerland/epidemiology
EDAT- 2010/03/10 06:00
MHDA- 2010/08/19 06:00
CRDT- 2010/03/10 06:00
PHST- 2009/08/21 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2010/01/29 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2010/02/09 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2010/03/10 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2010/03/10 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2010/08/19 06:00 [medline]
AID - S0379-0738(10)00066-6 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.02.014 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Forensic Sci Int. 2010 May 20;198(1-3):11-6. doi: 
      10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.02.014. Epub 2010 Mar 7.