Medicolegal Aspects of Cannabis and Its Metabolites Detection Window in Oral Fluid And Urine

Ghanem, Abdel Aziz A.; El-Bakary, Amal A.; El-Hamady, Mona S.

doi:10.21608/mjfmct.2014.47665

Medicolegal Aspects of Cannabis and Its Metabolites Detection Window in Oral Fluid And Urine

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Forensic Med. & Clin. Toxicology, Mansoura Faculty of Medicine, Egypt

² Forensic Med. & Clin. Toxicology, Mansoura Faculty of Medicine,Egypt

³ Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology Department, Mansoura University, Egypt

10.21608/mjfmct.2014.47665

Abstract

Cannabis is one of the most widely used illicit drugs. Oral fluid substance use testing is increasing and has many advantages over urine testing especially for recent substance use diagnosis. The aim of this study was to establish the possibility of detection of recent cannabis smoking through oral fluid and urine testing and its medicolegal aspects. Forty subjects were asked to provide oral fluid and urine samples after a reported period of abstinence. They provided 167 oral fluid samples during abstinence over 5 min – 30 h and 206 urine samples during extended observed abstinence over 1 - 90 days. Cannabis was detected using One Step cannabinoid urine test. The first negative oral fluid sample was that obtained 22 – 30 h after abstinence while the first negative urine sample was detected after seven days of abstinence. Cannabis was detected in urine samples for up to 70 days. These data suggest that oral fluid can be used to discriminate recent from former cannabis use indicating that the user is under the effect of cannabis.

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