What is the ethical position if one finds a substance that might have been
administered for criminal purpose?
Does one have the same duty as the GP to report the suspicion to the police?
Trevor Tickner,
Norwich
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Campbell [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 07 January 2003 23:59
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Test for spiked drinks
We get this type of request every couple of months and it seems to be
getting more frequent. This may be due to more public awareness since the
newspapers here have had articles about it in the last year. In most cases
it is too late to have any hope of detecting anything. In other cases the
subject is not sure enough to go to the police and prefer to go to their
own doctor hence the requests to us. The drugs used most commonly here are
also said to be flunitrazepam and GHB. I advise doctors that our routine
urine drug screen detects flunitrazepam poorly over the first 24 hours and
GHB not at all.
In the past however, on the very rare occasions when we have detected
substances in urinary drug screens that may be associated with a criminal
offence we have frozen and stored the urine. If the police do become
involved, they have taken the reemaining specimen and done their own
forensic lab testing to confirm results to the standards they require.
I am more concerned about the occasional requests for testing for "poisons"
since some one believes that another person is trying to poison them.
These must be >99% paranoid delusions, nevertheless we will not touch these
requests. We tell the referring doctor that if they believe the story
enough to order a test then they are bound to report it to the police.
Bruce
****************************************
Bruce Campbell FRCPA FAACB
Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology
Ph 61 (0)7 3377 8672
Fax 61 (0)7 3870 5989
Email [log in to unmask]
****************************************
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