Challenges in New Psychoactive Substances and Traditional Drugs of Abuse Testing in Saudi Arabia

Globally, new psychoactive substances (NPS) continue to increase in incidence threating life, and may lead to deaths in many circumstances. In contrast, in the scientific literature from the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, including Saudi Arabia, drug-related fatalities have rarely been reported. Little is known about drug-related deaths, although in the media tons of drugs have been seized annually. In addition, most studies in the MENA region are outdated. In other words, in MENA regions, even drug seized the custom department seems to be not matched with what is trending worldwide. The phenomenon of NPS is widely speared across the globe, but little is known in these regions. Confirmation of the identity of illicit and licit drugs in each matrix or as seized material are paramount task in forensic and clinical toxicology. Although many reviews have been published on the potential advantages of hyphenated techniques in toxicology, these devices required special setting may be not available in custom department or outside laboratories. Many portals small devices are not available for testing these seized materials on custom such as Raman spectroscopy. This presentation will address the use of many small devices that can be attached to GC-MS or LC-MS techniques. These techniques are rapid, accurate and efficient for primary identify both traditional and NPS in different sample types either biological or seized material. At first glance, identification of targeted analytes is not always problematic if standards are available, a suitable method of extraction is used and there is an adequate chromatographic separation. However, problems arise when trying to follow identification criteria using guidelines based on GC-MS analysis using new technologies. Challenging encountered with identification using portal, small and mobile techniques will be discussed. In fact, many identification parameters are presented which may give toxicologists added confidence in making decisions as to the presence of such drugs in seized and biological matrices. In this presentation, the role of forensic toxicology centre across Saudi Arabia in fighting against the emerging NPS and traditional drug of abuse will be discussed in parallel with introducing Saudi Arabia experience and solutions in combination of old and new identification techniques for such analysis.