ToxTalk EditorsYale Caplan, Ph.D., DABFTVickie Watts, M.S.

Section EditorsDaniel Anderson, M.S., FTS-ABFTMatthew Barnhill, Ph.D., DABFTDwain Fuller, B.S., DFTCBJ. Robert Zettl, MPA

SOFT 2008 Board of DirectorsPRESIDENT

Anthony Costantino, Ph.D., DABFTVICE PRESIDENT

Bradford Hepler, Ph.D., DABFTSECRETARY

Sarah Kerrigan, Ph.D.TREASURER

Marc LeBeau, Ph.D.DIRECTORS

Peter Stout, Ph.D., DABFTDan Anderson, M.S., FTS-ABFTDwain Fuller, B.S., DFTCBAdam Negrusz, Ph.D.Fiona Couper, Ph.D.

ex officioPast President:

Christine Moore, Ph.D., DABCCWebmaster:

Bruce Goldberger, Ph.D., DABFTToxTalk Editors:

Yale Caplan, Ph.D., DABFTVickie Watts, M.S.

I N S I D E T H S I S S U E :President’s / Treasurer Message 1-32008 Annual Meeting Minutes 4-62009 Meeting Information 8-11Case Notes 12-15Drugs in the News 16-19New Drugs 20-21Editorial / ABFT News 22-25Bits & Pieces/Member News 26-27

P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E

By Anthony Costantino, Ph.D., D-ABFT

®

Society of Forensic Toxicologists , Inc .Volume 33, Issue 1

March 2009

I am honored and thankfulthat the membership will allow meto serve them as the President ofSOFT in 2009. I intend to ensurethat the directives and objectivesset forth by the SOFT Board of Di-rectors for the benefit of the Soci-ety and its membership in the spiritof our published purposes andgoals continue to be pursued. If youwould like to review Society’s pur-pose and goals please refer to thewebsite http://soft-tox.org/PurposesGoals.asp.

As President, I know that Iwill be able to continue to draw onthe valuable advice and assistanceof the entire SOFT membership aswell as past and present officersand members of the Board as wemove forward to meet the needs ofour growing organization. In thisnote to you, I will share recent hap-penings, a few short-term deadlinesand my excitement for the futureand value of SOFT.

Last month we had a livelyand informative Board of Directorsmeeting in Denver, Colorado.Thank you to all of those who wereable to attend and participate in themeeting. In Denver, amongst othertopics, we focused on the role ofSOFT in our industry. To helpguide our stance, the Board of Di-rectors reviewed SOFT’s Purposesand Goals. We used our Purposesand Goals as the backbone for ourresponse to the National Academyof Science (NAS) Report on Foren-

sic Science entitled StrengtheningForensic Science in the UnitedStates: A Path Forward. This reportwas the result of a study of forensicsciences by the NAS which was au-thorized by Congress under theterms of the Science, State, Justice,Commerce and Related AgenciesAppropriation Act of 2006 whichbecame law on November 22, 2005.While I will not recap the entire re-port here, I do strongly recommendthat all of the membership downloadthe free summary from the follow-ing link: http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12589 .The full document may also be pur-chased from that site. The reportcontains observations and conclu-sions which resulted in a list of rec-ommendations that are to apply toboth public and private sector enti-ties. This report was released duringthe AAFS annual meeting on Febru-ary 18th . That timing allowed someof the forensic community to reviewand begin to digest at least the re-port summary. I am sure that it wasdiscussed among all of the disci-plines within the Academy. SOFTas well as AAFS, ABFT andASCLD have issued independentpress releases to acknowledge thereport and to state their positionswith respect to some of the recom-mendations (http://www.soft-tox.org/docs/SOFT%20Press%20Release.pdf).

(Continued on Page 2)

(Continued from Cover)

Upon re-viewing the recom-mendations in thereport it became clear

to me that the Society’s mission, proce-dures, goals and affiliations do indeeddemonstrate that SOFT has recognizedthe importance of these fundamentalareas and has embraced and addressedthem for years. In the press release wereferred to SOFT’s role in the areas ofresearch, education, training, accredita-tion and certification in forensic science.

Although we have embraced andfocused on these areas for many years,the new recommendations by the NAScould have a serious impact on how in-fluential SOFT and other member or-ganizations will be in the future. Belowis one of many recommendations madein the NAS report:

“To promote the development offorensic science into a mature fieldof multidisciplinary research andpractice, founded on the systematiccollection and analysis of relevantdata, Congress should establish andappropriate funds for an independ-ent federal entity, the National In-stitute of Forensic Science (NIFS).NIFS should have a full-time ad-ministrator and an advisory boardwith expertise in research and edu-cation, the forensic science disci-plines, physical and life sciences,forensic pathology, engineering,information technology, measure-ments and standards, testing andevaluation, law, national security,and public policy.”

I believe that the practices thatSOFT fosters may become required man-dates which will apply to scientists at alllevels in both public and private forensictoxicology laboratories. Additionally, Ibelieve there not only may be requiredcertifications of all scientists but alsorequired standards of practice and ac-creditation of the laboratories. If man-dated requirements and standards which

affect forensic toxicology are to bedeveloped, SOFT must be in a positionto assist NIFS with the development ofsuch requirements and standards. Sincethese developments will affect all areasof forensic science, I recommend thatSOFT participate with an active or-ganization that is committed to helpingNIFS with its mission to improve thefield of forensic science. One such or-ganization is the Consortium of Foren-sic Science Organizations (CFSO;http://www.thecfso.org/). The CFSOrepresents the American Academy ofForensic Sciences; American Societyof Crime Laboratory Directors; Ameri-can Society of Crime Lab Directors -Laboratory Accreditation Board; Fo-rensic Quality Services; InternationalAssociation for Identification; and Na-tional Association of Medical Examin-ers. They are committed to developinga strategy to work with policy makersto improve the forensic sciences for-ward. CFSO has an initial roundtablediscussion tentatively scheduled forMarch 10th. I am in contact with CFSOwith respect to membership for SOFTand by the time you are reading thisarticle the Board of Directors will havemade a decision. I also suggest that wework within SOFT to continually im-prove our current programs and estab-lish new impactful programs that dem-onstrate our working knowledge andunderstanding of the forensic toxicol-ogy marketplace. Your thoughts andcomments on this topic are welcome. Iwould like to hear them; please emailyour thoughts directly to me at(acostantino@drugscan.com).

In closing I would like to men-tion some other recent happenings andto remind the membership of someimpending deadlines. As I mentionedearlier, the BOD recently had its in-terim meeting. The BOD continues tofocus on the organization’s financialhealth, education, management of theorganization’s growth, and relation-ships with other organizations. At thatmeeting I welcomed our new board

members, Fiona Cooper and AdamNegrusz, as well as our new officers,Marc LeBeau (Treasurer) and BradHepler (Vice-President). In regard tothe committees, Marc LeBeau is thenew Chair of the Strategic PlanningCommittee, Brad Hepler will Chair theMeeting Guidelines Committee andPeter Stout will chair an ad hoc com-mittee and will work in conjunctionwith the Continuing Education Com-mittee to investigate means of improv-ing the availability of web-based con-tinuing education to the forensic toxi-cology community. Speaking of educa-tion, I would like to remind the mem-bership that the ERA and YSMAawards are now $2000. This was in-creased form $1000 at the 2008 BODmeeting. The deadline for receipt ofapplications is Friday, April, 3rd.

Jennifer Limoges is workingdiligently on the SOFT/JAT Specialissue. The deadline for submission oftitles and abstracts is March 16th. Seethe SOFT website for details. Fromthis JAT Special Issue, will emerge thefirst recipient of the newly establishedEDIT award. This award was estab-lished by Past-President, ChristineMoore. The EDIT award recognizesthe paper with the best experimentaldesign and highest impact on our field.

Finally, you need to know thata lot of excitement is brewing aroundthis year’s annual meeting in Okla-homa City. Phil Kemp and his teamhave put together a host of great eventsand a wonderful line up of speakersthat you won’t want to miss! The meet-ing hosts have established a fun andinformative website:www.SOFT2009.org. Check it out!

It looks like 2009 will be anexciting and dynamic year for me andfor SOFT. Your continued supportand enthusiasm for SOFT will beneeded and called upon this year andfor years to come. Thank you and seeyou in Oklahoma.

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P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E ( C O N T I N U E D )B Y A N T H O N Y C O S TA N T I N O , P H . D . , D - A B F T

Volume 33, Issue 1

ToxTalk Page 3

T R E A S U R E R R E P O RTSubmitted by Bradford Hepler, Ph.D., DABFT

INCOME 2008 ACTUAL

AMEX Account 855.00

BankCard Account 12,271.57

Discover Card Account 577.00

SOFT Application Fees 3,140.00

SOFT Dues & Subscriptions 35,737.00

Late Fees (Dues) 546.00

ERA Donations 1,898.00

Meeting Proceeds 71,232.60

Meeting Labels Provided 500.00

Mugs/Shirts/Memorabilia Sales 360.00

Reimbursed CE Seed Money 8,112.60

ToxTalk Subscription 90.00

Silent Auction Proceeds 431.00

Interest Earned ERA Fund 2,927.58Interest Earned Reserve Fund 769.63

Income: Misc.* 939.27

TOTAL 140,387.25

EXPENSES

AAFS Midyear BOD Meeting Expenses 1,282.55

AAFS SOFT Night out 6,613.36

AMEX Account Maintenance Fees 78.00

BankCard Account Maintenance Fees 304.96

Discover Card Account Maintenance Fees 13.76

Bank Service Charges 50.75

Contract Labor 400.00

ERA/YSMA Awards 3,000.00

Internet Account Maintenance 149.40

Insurance 651.03

JAT Meeting Issue Expenses 9,257.60

Lease: SOFT Office Space 5,585.08

Meeting Expenses** 57,845.50

Office Supplies 4,047.29

Payroll Expenses 22,145.70

Postage/Shipping Expenses 112.64

Professional Fees: Accounting 2,675.00

Refund Payments 114.00

SOFT Logo'd Item Expenses 878.02

SOFT CE Seed Money 8,442.60

SOFT Student Education Program (SSEP) 4,409.00

Software Programming 2,141.90

State of Delaware: Incorporation Expenses 75.00

Telephone 739.92

ToxTalk 18,096.19

Website Expenses 4,539.42

TOTAL 153,648.67

Net (Loss)/ Income -13,261.42

Table 2: SOFT 2008 Organizational Income/Expense Report

SOFT FUNDSEnding Bal-ance: Dec

31, 2007

Ending Bal-ance: Dec

31, 2008

Net Increase(Decrease)

Operational Fund:Checking Account 122,510.44 68,047.38 -54,463.06

ERA Fund 176,133.81 180,913.40 4,779.59

Reserve Fund 52,869.39 100,845.01 47,975.62

Non-Processed(Checks)/ Deposits 0.00 -11,553.57 -11,553.57

TOTALS 351,513.64 338,252.22 -13,261.42

Table 1: SOFT 2007/2008 Organizational Funds

The year 2008 has come to an end and our newSOFT Treasurer, Dr. Marc LeBeau, has taken up the reins for2009-2010. In January, Dr. LeBeau, our SOFT Certified Pub-lic Accountant, Martin Halloran, SOFT Administrative Assis-tant, Bonnie Fulmer, and I met at the SOFT office to transferinformation, records, and materials necessary to meet thecommitments required to successfully perform the duties ofthe office of SOFT Treasurer. Additionally, the necessarySOFT bank account signatures, documentation and accountaccess permissions for this transition in personnel were ac-complished.

Dr. LeBeau has already begun acting on and improv-ing upon proposals submitted by the Strategic Planning Com-mittee to further streamline the mechanics of the banking andauditing processes of the organization, all of this coming withapproval and input from the SOFT CPA, Mr. Halloran. Thisyear, Dr. LeBeau will also oversee the planned independentaudit to be performed by Osborne, Parsons & Rosacker, LLP,Certified Pubic Accountants. It is comforting to know thatthings are in good hands as we move forward.

Table 1 summarizes the 2007 and 2008 SOFT Organ-izational Account balances (comprised of the Operating Ac-count, the ERA Account, and the Reserve Account) at theending of each of those years. The net difference in the Or-ganizational Account totals (accounting for any outstandingtransactions to be processed for the accounts from the 2008calendar year) on Dec 31, 2008, can be compared to overalldetail of the Income/Expense report for calendar year 2008seen on Table 2. The Net change in year beginning and end isa reflection of the activity of all three of the OrganizationalAccounts, maintained in Mesa, Arizona.

Submitted,

Bradford R. Hepler, PhD, SOFT Treasurer 2007-2008bhepler@co.wayne.mi.us

*Check Returns, Designated Funds, etc.**Seed Money and Deposit Expenses (for current and future meetings)

Page 4 Volume 33, Issue 1

A N N U A L B U S I N E S S M E E T I N G M I N U T E S

O F T H E S O C I E T Y O F F O R E N S I C T O X I C O L O G I S T S , I N C .

The annual Business Meeting of the Societyof Forensic Toxicologists, Inc. was held onOctober 30, 2008 at the Arizona Grand Re-sort in Phoenix. The following meetingminutes are published for member review.

Call to OrderThe SOFT Business Meeting was called toorder at 3:34 PM by President, ChristineMoore. President Moore reminded the at-tendees that matters requiring a vote arelimited to FULL and RETIRED SOFTmembers. ASSOCIATE and STUDENTmembers were requested to refrain fromvoting. Acting Secretary, Marc LeBeauverified that a quorum was present.

Approval of AgendaPresident Moore asked if any correctionswere needed to the meeting’s agenda. Withno corrections proposed, the agenda wasapproved.

Approval of the October 2007 AnnualBusiness Meeting MinutesPresident Moore asked for any correctionsto the 2007 Annual Business Meeting Min-utes. With no corrections suggested, theminutes were approved.

President’s ReportPresident Moore indicated that it was anhonor and privilege to serve as the 2008President of SOFT. She expressed her ap-preciation to the membership for allowingher to serve as President and for the assis-tance that she received in this role. Shereminded the membership of the activitiesof the SOFT BOD over the past year, par-ticularly in the area of educational activities.She mentioned that the BOD has voted toincrease the ERA awards to $2,000 and sup-ported the second SOFT Student Enrich-ment Program. She thanked Jeri Ropero-Miller, as well as the faculty who helpedwith the whole event. President Moorethanked Dan Anderson for his service as theGuest Editor of the 2008 SOFT Special Is-sue of the Journal of Analytical Toxicology.She also announced a new award called theExperimental Design and Impact on Toxi-cology (EDIT) Award. This award willrecognize the first author of the paper pub-lished in the SOFT Special Issue of JATwho is judged to show the best scientificexperimental design and whose work has awide impact on the field. She indicated thatthe judges for the first EDIT Award will be

Edward Cone, Amanda Jenkins, and HansMaurer. President Moore announced newliaison efforts between SOFT and otherprofessional organizations. Tim Rohrigwill serve as a SOFT liaison to the Na-tional Association of Medical Examiners.She announced that the SOFT webpagewill now have a Consultant link so thatmembers can take advantage of consultingopportunities. President Moore announcedthe loss of three prominent SOFT membersin the past year – Karla Moore, RichardProuty, and John Cody. A moment of si-lence was held to honor them. In honor ofKarla Moore, the BOD approved a requestto rename the annual SOFT Fun Run to the“Karla Moore Fun Run”. President Moorethen thanked Vickie Watts and NormWade, as well as their local team, for host-ing the 2008 SOFT Annual Meeting. Shealso thanked Jeri Ropero-Miller and PeterStout for their work with the exhibitorsbefore and during the meeting. PresidentMoore ended her report by thanking all ofthe people that have contributed to the or-ganization over the years.

Secretary’s ReportDue to the excused absence of Secretary,Sarah Kerrigan, her report was introducedunder “Membership”.

Treasurer’s ReportTreasurer, Brad Hepler, indicated that tworeports had been placed into ToxTalk dur-ing the year in an effort to keep the mem-bership better informed of the financialstatus of the organization. In March of2008, the summaries for Tax Year 2007were provided and in September of 2008,the SOFT Accountant report was providedfor membership review. A copy of theTreasurer’s Report for January 1 – July 31,2008 was also provided. Treasurer Heplerprovided the current balances of the Opera-tional Account, the Reserve Account, theERA Fund, and the total Interest earned sofar in 2008. He reported that the BOD hasdecided to increase the Reserve Account to$100,000. Interest on this account will godirectly into the ERA Fund. TreasurerHepler also explained that the audit proc-ess was proceeding. In addition to auditsconducted by the SOFT Accountant, therewill be an “audited financial statement” fortax year 2008 and an on-going “reviewedfinancial statement” every two years after-

wards (at the change of treasurer). Theseadditional audits will be conducted by thesame firm used by the AAFS.

Vice-President’s ReportVice-President, Tony Costantino, calledfor committee reports as follows:

A. BylawsYale Caplan reported that there was nocurrent activity to report for this commit-tee.

B. ToxTalkYale Caplan announced a call for GuestEditorials from officers and committeechairs on timely issues in forensic toxicol-ogy for issues in 2009.

C. Budget, Finance, and AuditBob Turk reported that the committeecompleted its review of the 2007 SOFTBudget and Financial Reports and that allwas in order.

D. MembershipActing Secretary, Marc LeBeau, reportedthere were 941 current members as of Oc-tober 7, 2008. The Committee reviewed71 new applications since January of 2008.33 members were removed at their ownrequest (19) or from failure to pay 2007dues (14).

E. PublicationDan Anderson reported that there were 33manuscripts received for publication con-sideration in the 2008 SOFT Special Edi-tion of the Journal of Analytical Toxicol-ogy; 28 of these manuscripts were final-ized and accepted for publication. Hethanked all of the volunteers who assistedhim with the reviews, as well as PresidentMoore, Tinsley Preston, and Julie Weber-Roark. Tinsley Preston, representing Pre-ston Publications, thanked Dan Andersonand presented him with a plaque for hisservice as the Guest Editor for the 2008issue.

F. Education Research AwardPhil Kemp reported that the committeereceived three applications for the Educa-tional Research Award (ERA) for 2008and one application for the Young ScientistMeeting Award (YSMA). Following re-view, one of the ERA applications wasrejected due to insufficient data. Applica-tion deadlines for these awards are the firstweek of April.

H. Forensic Toxicology Lab GuidelinesLee Hearn reported no current activity forthe committee.

I. Drugs and DrivingJennifer Limoges first acknowledged thework of Sarah Kerrigan on the Drugs andDriving Committee. The committee con-ducted a workshop on “Critical FlickerFusion Confusion” at the 2008 SOFT An-nual Meeting and worked with the SOFTContinuing Education Committee to pro-vide an “Interpretive DUID” workshop.An effort is underway to have a specialDUID website available from the SOFTwebsite.

J. Policy and ProceduresBill Anderson reported that The Policy andProcedure Manual has been updated. Ad-ditionally, the related database has alsobeen updated to reflect the most currentinformation.

K. Web SiteVice President Costantino reported forBruce Goldberger that the SOFT websitehas been redesigned and should be avail-able in January 2009.

L. Continuing EducationAnn Marie Gordon stated that the commit-tee provided regional training in WestPalm Beach, FL in conjunction with theDrugs & Driving Committee. The work-shop was supported by a Traffic SafetyGrant and was fully self-supported. Thecommittee is also conducting a workshopduring SOFT 2008 on sympathomimeticamines and tryptamines. A proposed re-gional workshop with CAT is beingplanned and discussions are underway fora co-sponsored workshop with the DFSACommittee.

M. Drug-Facilitated Sexual AssaultMarc LeBeau reported about the discus-sions of a joint DFSA/Continuing Educa-tion Committee Workshop. The commit-tee will begin evaluating Survey Monkeyfor an online DFSA survey. A DFSA FactSheet has been developed and the commit-tee would like to have a separate webpagelinked to the SOFT Website for incorpora-tion of this Fact Sheet and other committeedocuments. The committee has been askedto prepare a DFSA Special Issue of Foren-sic Science Review for 2010. Addition-ally, the committee is preparing standard-ized SOPs to allow laboratories to reach

the recommended detection limits pro-posed in 2005.

N. EthicsAaron Jacobs reported no ethics violationinvestigations by the committee.

O. NominatingDiana Wilkins reported that the commit-tee received and recommended nomina-tions for the following candidates for the2009 SOFT Officer and Board vacancies:

Anthony Costantino, PhD, DABFTPresident (One-year term)

Bradford Hepler, PhD, DABFTVice-President (One-year term)

Marc LeBeau, PhDTreasurer (Two-year term)

Adam Negrusz, PhDDirector (Three-year term)

Fiona Couper, PhDDirector (Three-year term)

The nominations were forwarded to theSOFT membership via the September2008 issue of ToxTalk for their considera-tion.

P. MS/MS GuidelinesVice President Costantino reported on thesad passing of former committee chairJohn Cody. The loss of John delayedfinalization of the draft MS/MS Guide-lines. Denny Crouch will be the newcommittee chair and is reorganizing thecommittee.

Q. Finance and Long-Term StrategicPlanningBrad Hepler reported that the SOFT of-fice has continued to implement the 2007recommendations of the committee. Noother current activity has occurred withthis committee.

AnnouncementsPresident Moore asked for announce-ments to be provided and the followingwere given:

AAFSMarilyn Huestis reported that the 2009AAFS Annual Meeting will be held inDenver, CO February 16-21, 2009. Shealso told the membership that the Toxi-cology Section of AAFS has been tar-geted by the AAFS leadership to encour-age more participation and membership inthe organization.

ToxTalk

G. Meeting Resource CommitteeIntroductions by Tony Costantino

2008 – Phoenix (Vickie Watts/NormWade)Norm Wade thanked the BOD for allow-ing Phoenix to host the 2008 AnnualMeeting. Vickie Watts reported thatthere were 1002 registrants for the meet-ing. There were also 1695 workshop reg-istrations and 86 exhibitor booths sold.

2009 – Oklahoma City (Phil Kemp)Phil Kemp reported that the planning forthe 2009 SOFT Meeting in OklahomaCity, OK is well underway. The dates ofthe meeting will be October 18-23, 2009.An official budget will be provided byDecember 1st for BOD consideration.Sufficient hotel and meeting room spacehave been secured. There are plans tohave a dinner at the Western HeritageMuseum. A night in Bricktown is alsoscheduled.

2010 – Richmond (Michelle Peace)Michelle Peace reported that the 2010SOFT Meeting in Richmond, VA will bethe 40th Anniversary Meeting for SOFT.It will be held October 18-22, 2010.Planning for the meeting is progressingwell.

2011 – San Francisco (Ann MarieGordon)Ann Marie Gordon reported that the plan-ning committee, as well as the scientificcommittee, have been established for the2011 joint meeting with TIAFT in SanFrancisco, CA. The dates will be August26 - Sept 2, 2011. The convenientlylocated San Francisco Marriott Hotel atUnion Square will be the conference ho-tel.

2012 – Boston (Michael Wagner)Michael Wagner reported that planningfor the 2012 SOFT Meeting is underway.To obtain affordable hotel room rates, the2012 meeting will be held during theweek of July 4th (July 1 – 6, 2012). TheMarriott-Copley Center in Boston’s BackBay area will be the conference hotel.

2013 – OrlandoVice-President Costantino reported thatthe BOD accepted a proposal from BruceGoldberger to host the 2013 SOFT An-nual Meeting in Orlando, FL. It may be ajoint meeting with N.A.M.E.

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A N N U A L B U S I N E S S M E E T I N G M I N U T E S ( C O N T I N U E D )

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A N N U A L B U S I N E S S M E E T I N G M I N U T E S (C O N T I N U E D )

Volume 33, Issue 1

TIAFTMarilyn Huestis reported that the 2009TIAFT Annual Meeting will be held Au-gust 23-29, 2009, in Geneva, Switzerland.She thanked the Continuing EducationCommittee, SOFT BOD, and authors ofpresentations that were provided to SouthAmerican delegates of TIAFT and trans-lated into their native languages.

Midwest Association of Toxicology andTherapeutic Drug MonitoringLoralie Langman reported that the MATTAnnual Meeting will be held April 9-10,2009 in Rochester, MN.

Int’l Association of Therapeutic DrugMonitoring and Clinical ToxicologyLoralie Langman reported that the 2009IATDMCT Annual Meeting will be held inMontreal, Canada in October.

CATJohn Hughes announced that the 2009 win-ter CAT meeting will be held in San Fran-cisco, CA on January 16-17, 2009.

ABFTMarina Stajic announced the names of thenew Diplomates and the Specialists. Shealso reported that ABFT has lowered thecost of application fees.

FTCAmanda Jenkins congratulated the newestmembers of FTC. She also acknowledgedthe death of John Cody. She indicated thatdonations could be made in John’s mem-ory to “Chromosome 18” in San Antonio,TX. Contact Amanda Jenkins for moreinformation.

nual meeting on the SOFT website to cap-ture the historical aspect of the meetings.

ElectionsThe following members were elected asindicated:

Anthony Costantino, PhD, DABFTPresident (One-year term)

Bradford Hepler, PhD, DABFTVice-President (One-year term)

Marc LeBeau, PhDTreasurer (Two-year term)

Adam Negrusz, PhDDirector (Three-year term)

Fiona Couper, PhDDirector (Three-year term)

Incoming President’s RemarksTony Costantino thanked Christine Moorefor her outstanding service on the BODand as 2008 President of SOFT. He indi-cated what an honor it is to be given theopportunity to serve as President in 2009.He thanked the speakers at this annualmeeting and explained the importance ofthe ERA and YSMA to the membership.He also commented on the rapid growth ofSOFT and how we need to manage that.He indicated that an online survey will beprovided to assist the BOD with ideas onhow to move forward. He called on mem-bers to volunteer for committees and heannounced that the 2009 SOFT SpecialIssue of JAT will be edited by JenniferLimoges.

AdjournmentPresident Moore adjourned the 2008SOFT Annual Business Meeting at 5:09PM.

Unfinished BusinessPresident Moore asked for any unfinishedbusiness topics. There was none.

New BusinessPresident Moore reported that the BODwould like to increase the annual dues from$50 to $60 for regular members. The justifi-cation for the increase was provided in theMarch 2008 ToxTalk. There has not been achange in dues since 1994. The cost of op-eration of SOFT has increased over theyears, so she asked for a motion to increasethe dues to $60. The motion was made andseconded. An opportunity for comment wasprovided and there were no comments. Themotion passed.

AwardsPhil Kemp presented the 2008 ERA Awardsto Meng Yan-Wu and Sherri Kacinko, andthe 2008 Young Scientist Meeting Award toRobert Hargrove.

Recognition of Meeting Hosts and Chair-persons.Vickie Watts and Norm Wade were thankedand acknowledged for their hard work to puton the 2008 SOFT Annual Meeting. Vickieand Norm thanked all of the volunteers whohelped with the meeting.

Recognition of Outgoing OfficersThe outgoing Directors and Officers wereacknowledged and thanked by PresidentMoore.

Request to Post Meeting PhotosTinsley Preston requested that the BODconsider posting photographs from the an-

F U N D A M E N TA L S O F A N A LY T I C A L T O X I C O L O G Y - B O O K R E V I E WBook Review Submitted by Randall Baselt

This is an ambitious effort todescribe in detail the many and variedaspects of the science of toxicologicalanalysis. The 17 chapters cover everyforeseeable aspect, from specimen col-lection through analytical techniquesand quality control to pharmacologicalprinciples and interpretation of results.The authors bring together a great dealof experience in the field and have suc-ceeded admirably in achieving theirgoal: “to give principles and practicalinformation on the analysis of drugs,

poisons and other relevant analytes in biologi-cal specimens...”. The book is very readableand quite up-to-date, and contains many illus-trative figures, charts and tables. Both the stu-dent and the practicing professional would dowell to study this material carefully, as there issomething here for every conceivable level ofinterest.

Fundamentals of Analytical Toxicology byR.J. Flanagan, A. Taylor, I.D. Watson andR. Whelpton, John Wiley & Sons, Chiches-ter, England, 2007, 505 pp., approx. $60.00

ToxTalk Page 7

S O F T ’ S P R E S T I G I O U S A WA R D S -T H E E D U C AT I O N A L R E S E A R C H A WA R D ( E R A )

T H E Y O U N G S C I E N T I S T M E E T I N G A WA R D ( Y S M A )

The ERAThe ERA award has evolved

over the years in both amount andscope. The annual awards are nowfunded from bank interest on principalfunds in the ERA endowment and gen-erous donations of our many SOFTmembers. Over the years, the stipendhas grown from $500 for a single an-nual award to multiple awards earnedat $1,000 each. Beginning in 2009, theaward amount has been re-set to$2,000 per recipient, plus a compli-mentary SOFT meeting registration.

The use of the ERA award isintended for travel expenses related tothe Annual Meeting. Conditions of theaward would include having researchsuitable for presentation at the upcom-ing annual meeting. In addition, allproposals must be submitted by thefirst Friday in April. Award recipi-ents will be notified by June 1 so thatthey can make plans to attend the an-nual SOFT meeting and present theirfindings.

Eligibility: Applicants for the ERAaward must be enrolled in a Master's,Pre-Doctoral, Post-Doctoral or MedicalResidency academic program and per-forming toxicological research. The

applicant's research should have anemphasis in drug detection/quantita-tion, drug absorption/distribution/elimination, drugs and human perform-ance or related areas of forensic toxi-cology. Additional application infor-mation can be downloaded from theSOFT website (www.soft-tox.org).

The YSMAAs forensic toxicology contin-

ues to evolve, it has become increas-ingly clear that the bench level scientistis the indispensable and under-appreciated tool of the forensic toxicol-ogy laboratory. It is at the bench wherethe advancement of this complex sci-ence occurs. Unfortunately, often dueto budget constraints, it is the benchlevel scientist that gets left behind inthe laboratory at SOFT meeting time.

To compliment the ERA that isdesigned for students, the SOFT Boardof Directors has established the YoungScientist Meeting Award (YSMA) toencourage the involvement of thebench level scientist in SOFT. Origi-nally awarded in 2003, the award is forany bench level scientist with 5 yearsor less experience that is working inthe field of forensic toxicology (B.S.,M.S., or Ph.D.). Beginning in 2009,

the award amount has been re-set to$2,000 plus a complimentary SOFTmeeting registration. These funds areto be used to offset travel expenses tothe annual SOFT meeting. The appli-cant must complete a research projectthat advances the field of forensic toxi-cology and report the findings at theannual SOFT meeting with an ORALpresentation.

Eligibility: The YSMA will recognizebench level scientists (B.S., M.S., orPh.D.) with 5 years or less experiencein the field of forensic toxicology. Ap-plications will be competitive.Awardees may not reapply. Abstractsmust be for ORAL presentations andmust be accepted by the scientific pro-gram committee of the current yearSOFT meeting.

2009 ERA Committee Members are:Phil Kemp, Ph.D. (Chair)Vina Spiehler, Ph.D.Tom Kupiec, Ph.D.Matt Lambing, MSFSDavid Von Minden, Ph.D.,

Awards are to be made at the discretion ofthe ERA Committee based upon excellence,relevance to forensic toxicology or othercriteria established by SOFT and the ERACommittee.

William AndersonTimothy AppelFred AppleCheri BairdMichael BaylorDavid BlackStuart BogemaDonna BushPhyllis ChandlerPaula ChildsEdward ConeAnthony CostantinoLeo Dal CortivoGary Dawson

T H A N K Y O U ’ S A R E E X T E N D E D T O E A C H O F T H E F O L L O W I N G

2 0 0 9 C O N T R I B U T O R S O F E R A / Y S M A F U N D I N G

Timothy EastlyMahmoud ElSohlyLaurel FarrellAlex GantvergDimitri GerostamoulosAnn Marie GordonBradford HeplerLarry HowardWalter HrynkiwMarilyn HuestisJohn HughesDaniel IsenschmidGeorge JacksonPhilip Kemp

Erin Spargo-KolbrichJames KranerThomas KupiecMatthew LambingMarc LeBeauBarry LevineMark LewisRay LiuElizabeth MarkerMaria MartinezAndrew MasonSamuel MathewsJoel MayerRod McCutcheon

Richard McGarryMichael McGeeDiane Mertens-MaxhamJohn MitchellMadeline MontgomeryAdam NegruszRobert OsiewiczPat PizzoJeri Ropero-MillerWayne RossRichard SafersteinRobert SearsTheodore SiekRobert Simon

Michael SladeMichael SmithVina SpiehlerElizabeth SprattPeter StoutCraig SutheimerRobert TurkLowell Van BerkomKarl VerebeyWen-Ling WangVickie WattsRobert WhiteDiana WilkinsRobert Zettl

Welcome to Oklahoma City!The SOFT 2009 Planning

Committee wishes to extend ourheartiest welcome to our nationaland international guests at the an-nual meeting of the Society of Fo-rensic Toxicologists in OklahomaCity, Oklahoma. The OklahomaCity Renaissance Hotel in the heartof downtown will be your destina-tion for the week of October 19th –23rd 2009. Come prepared for alarge dose of science, southwesternculture, and just plain fun!

The Renaissance OklahomaCity Convention Center Hotel islocated smack dab in the middle ofdowntown right across the streetfrom the Cox Convention Centerwhere the scientific sessions andexhibitor hall will be located.Along with the elegantly appointedrooms, there are outstanding ameni-ties like a spa, whirlpool, and in-door swimming pool for a relaxinghotel package. There are also diningoptions, like the Falling Water Grilland Caffeina’s Marketplace. After along day of science you can enjoy asmooth libation at the Water’s EdgeLounge.

The planning committee hasarranged a great conference rate of$159.00. Register early, rooms arealready going fast! You can registerafter April 1st through the SOFTwebsite (www.soft-tox.org) or theSOFT 2009 website(www.soft2009.org).

Page 8 Volume 33, Issue 1

Chihuly Exhibit currently on display atthe OKC Art Museum.

SOFT 2009 ANNUAL MEETINGOklahoma City, Oklahoma

October 18 – 23, 2009

Hosts: Phil Kemp, Dennis McKinney

Site: Cox Convention Center

WE L C O M E TO OK L A H O M A C I T Y !

WeatherOctober in the Oklahoma

City area is mild. Expect low tem-peratures to be in the 50’s and highsto be in the low 70’s. The weathershould be great for golf at one ofthe many courses in the area or see-ing some of the sites such as theOklahoma City Bombing Memorialor Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

SOFT 2009 Committee

Phil Kemp, Host –pkemp@arlok.com

Dennis McKinney, Co-Host –dmckin321@aol.com

Laurel Farrell, Treasurer –ljfarrellco@msn.com

David Von Minden, ScientificChair – dvonminden@uco.edu

Tom Kupiec, Scientific Co-Chair –tkupiec@arlok.com

John Soper, Workshop Chair –john.w.soper@faa.gov

Jesse Kemp, Workshop Co-Chair –jkemp@arlok.com

Robert Bost, Student Liaison –rbost@uco.edu

Bruce Goldberger, SOFT Webmas-ter – bruce-goldberger@ufl.edu

Jared Cooper, SOFT 2009 WebsiteDesigner – jcooper@rti.org

Jeri Roper-Miller, Exhibitor LiaisonSpecialist – jerimiller@rti.org

Peter Stout, Exhibitor LiaisonSpecialist - pstout@rti.org

Vickie Watts, Meeting Coordinatortoxilady@cox.net

Bonnie Fulmer, Registration –bonnie_soft@yahoo.com

Airport and TransportationWill Rogers World Airport

is only 10 miles from the Renais-sance Hotel. There are taxicabsavailable or you can catch a shuttlewith Airport Express (reservations,877-688-3311). If you are renting acar, valet parking is available at thehotel or there are plenty of spots atnearby parking garages.

ToxTalk

Explore Oklahoma City!Visit the beautiful Myriad

Gardens in downtown OklahomaCity and experience the CrystalBridge Tropical Conservatory. Youwill see plants from around theworld. See the zebra long-wingedbutterflies and the free-roaming liz-ards as well. Take a walk on theAdventure Trail. The trail windsunder a 35-foot waterfall and up avine-covered mountain. Outside,meander along pathways by streamswith landscape indicative of north-east Oklahoma. Enjoy the sunkenlake with Japanese koi and nativeOklahoma fish.

If sports are your thing, theFord Center, just down the streetfrom the Renaissance is home to thenewest NBA franchise, the Okla-homa City Thunder. Believe it ornot, hockey is popular here with theOklahoma City Blazers playing inthe Ford Center. Bring your clubsas golf courses are numerousaround the Oklahoma City area.

The Omniplex center hasmore than 350 hands-on scienceexhibits to see, and if you have littleones (under 6) there is an area withall sorts of hands-on exhibits justfor them. The Air and Space Mu-seum has one of the most completecollections of this type of memora-bilia in the southwest. There areseveral cultural and art galleries,not to mention the botanical gar-dens. You can also visit the Plane-tarium or the Omnidome, Okla-homa's only Imax-style theatre.

If you are adventurous, headdown to Norman (about 20 milessouth on I-35). There you will findthe University of Oklahoma whereyou can hit the largest universitybased museum in the country. The

Sam Noble Museum of NaturalHistory is a 50,000 square foot mu-seum that features five outstandinggalleries depicting more than 300million years of Oklahoma's naturalhistory.

The Bricktown Canal andEntertainment District is only ablock away. As you stroll along thecanal you will find some of the fin-est shopping, eating and nightlife inthe Midwest. Step off of the canalboats and come experience the ex-citing variety of restaurants, includ-ing Zio’s Italian Kitchen, Chelino’sMexican Café, and BricktownBrewery with its own microbreweryand excellent food. After supper,how about dessert at Nonna’s orsome good music and dancing atToby Keith’s I Love This Bar andGrill? For a quieter evening, have anice cocktail at Maker’s Cigar andPiano Lounge?

So there you are! Just a se-lect few of the places to see as youexperience Oklahoma City. TheSOFT 2009 cannot wait until youget here. We are planning a weekof forensic toxicology workshops,sessions, and forums that will beeducational and fun at the sametime. The social events we haveplanned will be second to none aswe roll out the red carpet for you.Come on down and have some funin the heartland of America.

Page 9

OK L AH O M A NE W S (CO N T I N U E D )

Will Rogers Wiley Post, OklahomaHistory Museum

End of Trail Statue at WesternHeritage Museum in Oklahoma City

The Oklahoma HistoryCenter Museum is an architecturalmasterpiece. A decade in the mak-ing, the Oklahoma History Centeris an 18-acre, 215,000 square-footlearning center where young andold can explore Oklahoma’s uniquehistory of geology, transportation,commerce, culture, aviation, heri-tage and more.

Page 10 Volume 33, Issue 1

SOFT 2009 ANNUAL MEETINGOklahoma City, Oklahoma

October 18 – 23, 2009

Hosts: Phil Kemp, Dennis McKinney

Site: Cox Convention Center

PRELIMINARY PROGRAM

Sunday, October 18, 2009 Registration Opens (9:00am - 6:00pm) NLCP Inspector Training (2:00pm - 6:00pm) Dinner on your own

Monday, October 19, 2009 Continental Breakfast (7:00am - 8:30am) Registration (7:00am - 6:00pm) SOFT Workshops (8:00am - 5:00pm) SOFT Student Enrichment Program (8:00am -

5:00pm) ABFT Exam Committee (9:00am - 12:00pm) Tour busses (10:00am - 7:00pm) Lunch On Your Own SOFT-AAFS Drugs and Driving Committee

(5:00pm - 6:30pm) Dinner on your own

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 Continental Breakfast (7:00am - 8:30am) Registration (7:00am - 6:00pm) SOFT Board Meeting (7:00am - 12:00pm) SOFT Workshops (8:00am - 5:00pm) ABFT Exam (8:00 am - 12:00pm) ABFT Accreditation Committee (9:00am -

12:00pm) Tour busses (10:00am - 7:00pm) ABFT Board Meeting (12:00pm - 6:00pm) Exhibits Setup (12:00pm - 5:00pm) Lunch On Your Own Exhibits Open (5:30pm - 7:00pm) Sunshine Rieders Silent Auction Opens 5:30pm Welcoming Reception with Exhibitors (5:30pm -

7:00pm) President’s Banquet, Western Heritage Museum -

Bus Transport (7:00pm - 12:00 pm)

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 Continental Breakfast (8:00am - 9:30am Registration (8:00am - 6:00pm) AAFS Steering Committee (7:30am - 8:30am) Exhibits open (8:00am - 3:30pm) Opening Ceremonies Plenary Session (8:00am) Scientific Session (8:45am - 12:15pm) DFSA Committee (12:00pm - 1:15pm) Lunch with Exhibitors (12:15pm - 1:15pm) Scientific Session (1:15pm - 5:00pm) Exhibitor’s Happy Hour (5:30pm - 6:30pm) ABFT Certificant Reception Wine & Cheese

(5:30pm - 6:30pm) Dinner with Exhibitors (6:30pm - 8:00pm) Elmer Gordon Forum (8:00pm - 10:00pm) Nite Owl Reception (10:30pm - 12:30am)

Thursday, October 22, 2009 SOFT Fun Run/Walk (6:30am - 8:00am) Continental Breakfast (7:30am - 8:30am) Registration (8:00am - 6:00pm) Exhibits open (8:00am - 1:30pm) Silent Auction Last Day (12:00pm - 6:00pm) Exhibitor Feedback Meeting (8:00am - 9:30am) Scientific Session (8:00am - 12:15pm) Lunch with Exhibitors (12:15pm - 1:15pm) Exhibits breakdown (1:30pm - 3:30pm) Scientific Session (1:15pm - 3:00pm) SOFT Business Meeting (3:00pm - 5:00pm) Nite on Bricktown (6:30pm - 11:30pm)

Friday, October 23, 2009 Continental Breakfast (8:00am - 9:00am) Scientific Session (9:00am - 12:00pm) NSC Executive Board (1:00pm - 3:30pm)

ToxTalk Page 11

SO FT S T U D E N T E N R I C H M E N T P R O G R A M (SS EP )Submitted by Jeri Ropero-Miller, Ph.D., SSEP Coordinator

SOFT will continue the StudentEnrichment Program (SSEP) as a Mon-day event at the annual October meet-ings. SSEP is an educational outreachprogram designed for college students toparticipate in a one-day introduction tothe many disciplines of forensic toxicol-ogy. The program primarily consists of alaboratory tour, lunch with SSEP facultyand lectures by SOFT members.

This year we hope to tour thestate-of-the-art facilities of the Okla-homa State Bureau of Investigation and/or the Forensic Science Institute bothlocated on the Oklahoma Central Univer-sity campus in Edmond. SSEP is fundedby proceeds of the annual SOFT SilentAuction and contributions from researchorganizations such as this year’s sponsor,Analytical Research Laboratories (ARL)of Oklahoma City. Last year the SOFTSilent Auction made $5254 and thismoney will be available to SSEP asneeded. Items for the Silent Auction aredonated every year by SOFT exhibitorsand members.

For the past two years SOFTmembers have made up a stable facultythat has enjoyed teaching at the SSEP.Their commitment is why SSEP contin-ues to be a successful educational out-reach program and SOFT would like toacknowledge them for sharing their pro-fessional experiences with the students.SSEP faculty and topics for 2007-2008were:

Jeri Ropero-Miller Introduction to Forensic

ToxicologyRuth Winecker Postmortem Forensic ToxicologyBarry Logan Human Performance ToxicologyPeter Stout Forensic Drug Testing, Urine &

Alternative MatricesMarc LeBeau Drug Facilitated Crime

InvestigationLarry Broussard (2007)Donald Frederick (2008) Forensic Toxicology in the

Clinical SettingMarilyn Huestis Research in Forensic ToxicologyMatthew Slawson Sports & Doping - Performance

Enhancing DrugsRobert Middleberg Consultation and Expert Services

Most have agreed to continue asfaculty, but some replacements may beneeded. If you are interested in servingas SSEP faculty please contact Jeri Rop-ero-Miller, the SSEP Coordinator.

Students from Oklahoma willsoon be notified of this SSEP opportu-nity through university and college fac-ulty. However, students from all geo-graphic locations are considered. Lastyear SSEP had 52 participants including

three international students in attendancefrom the Netherlands (SOFT member /sponsor- Bruce Goldberger) and the Re-public of China Taiwan (SOFT member /sponsor- Ray Liu). Participating studentsare chosen via an application process.Students demonstrating high academicachievement in the sciences can apply.Applications can be downloaded fromSOFT 2009 Meeting website(soft2009.org). SOFT members are en-couraged to publicize this program tostudents having an interest in learningmore about forensic toxicology. Bothundergraduate and graduate level stu-dents can apply. The SSEP committeewill review all applications and contactthe most qualified applicants with aninvitation to attend.

SSEP Coordinator:Jeri Ropero-Miller, RTI InternationalContact: 919-485-5685jerimiller@rti.org

SSEP Site Coordinator:Robert Bost, University of Central OKContact: (405) 974-5519rbost@uco.edu

Application Period:May 1, 2009 to September 30, 2009

Applications Available from:http://www.soft2009.org/ssep.html orjerimiller@rti.org

Acceptance Notification: Oct. 2, 2009

Student participants and faculty of the 2008 SSEP program in Phoenix, Arizona

Submitted by Section Editor, Matthew Barnhill, Ph.D., DABFT

Send interesting “Case Notes” to Section Editor, Matthew Barnhill, Ph.D. at mbarnhilljr@worldnet.att.net

Introduction

Considerable information aboutdrug-facilitated sexual assault has accumu-lated in the past few years. In a typicalscenario, the assailant surreptitiously dosesthe beverage of an unsuspecting victimwith a substance for the purpose of produc-ing an incapacitated or unconscious victimand subsequently sexually assaulting him/her while under the influence of this sub-stance. A recent published paper implicat-ing the imidazoline derivative, tetrahydro-zoline, in drug-facilitated sexual assaultwas reported [1]. However, a delay ex-cluded any collection of specimens in thecase for analysis of tetrahydrozoline. Be-cause of the lack of toxicological analysis,the conclusions on the case were based onthe significant but circumstantial evidencepresented.

Tetrahydrozoline (C13H16N2), (2-[1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1-naphthyl]-imidazoline), is a sympathomimetic aminewith alpha2-adrenergic activity which isused in over-the-counter eye and nasalpreparations because of its vasoconstrictiveand decongestive properties (fig. 1). Whentetrahydrozoline is ingested, predominantcentral alpha2-adrenergic receptor agonisteffects lead to central nervous system de-pression and cardiovascular adverse effects[2, 3]. We report a case involving an al-leged sexual assault linked to the use oftetrahydrozoline. A 16 year-old Caucasianfemale was known to have voluntarily in-gested alcoholic beverages that were sur-reptitiously dosed with unknown amountsof Visine®, a common imidazole decon-gestant containing tetrahydrozoline. Thevictim in this case was reported to be“heavily intoxicated”. Although ethanolalone may be significant to the question ofwhether or not the victim may have beenable to give ‘‘informed consent’’ it islikely that mixing tetrahydrozoline withethanol will result in enhanced centralnervous system depressant effects. To our

(OSBI) encourages investigating policeofficers to submit blood and urine samplesin all cases of alleged drug-facilitated sex-ual assaults (DFSA). However, only urinewas collected during this hospital rape ex-amination.

The initial screening involved ananalysis for alcohol and other associatedvolatiles (ethanol, methanol, acetaldehyde,acetone, and isopropanol) by headspacegas chromatography with flame ionizationdetection (GC/FID). The analysis wascarried out in duplicate on two discriminat-ing GC columns to rule out the presence ofany interfering volatile substances. Immu-noassay screening for various drugs ofabuse (barbiturates, benzodiazepines,carisoprodol, cocaine metabolite, mari-juana metabolites, methamphetamine, opi-ates, and phencyclidine) was performedusing Minilyser® automated liquid han-dling robotics in an Enzyme Linked Immu-nosorbent Assay (ELISA) format(Immunalysis Corp., Pomona, CA).

The qualitative screening proce-dure that disclosed the presence of tetrahy-drozoline was a general drug screen forchemically basic drugs adapted from apreviously published method describedelsewhere [4]. The GC system used in theanalysis was an Agilent Technologies 5973mass selective detector (MSD) coupled toan Agilent Technologies 6890 series gaschromatograph equipped with an FID, dualsplit/splitless injectors and an Agilent 7683Automatic Liquid Sampler (Agilent Tech-nologies, Santa Clara, CA). Chromatogra-phy for FID and MSD analysis was per-formed with separate columns in parallelunder the same oven parameters. The FIDand MSD columns used were a DB-1(100% dimethylpolysiloxane) and DB-5(5% phenyl-95% methylsiloxane) capillarycolumns (30 m x 0.320 mm i.d., film thick-ness 0.25 µm; J&W Ltd.), respectively.The column temperature was programmedto rise from an initial temperature of 60°C

Submitted by: Matthew E. Stillwell M.S., Jerry K. Carter, B.S., Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Forensic Sci-ence Center, Forensic Toxicology Unit, Edmond, OK and Phil Kemp, Ph.D., Analytical Research Laboratories,Oklahoma City, OK

C A S E N O T E S #1 : T E T R A H Y D R O Z O L I N E A N D

D R U G -F A C I L I TAT E D S E X U A L A S S A U LT

knowledge, this is the first report of tetra-hydrozoline found in urine involving asexual assault.

Case HistoryDuring a

residential “party” a16-year-old, 48 kg(105 lb) Caucasianfemale consumedalcoholic beveragescontaining un-known amounts oftetrahydrozoline.The male assailantprepared several alcoholic beverages outof view from the victim. The assailantwas observed, by an eyewitness, covertlyplacing something from a Visine® bottleinto her drink. She was reported to be“heavily intoxicated” with spontaneousemesis. The victim was later able to de-scribe the event, recalling details of theattack during short intermittent periods ofconsciousness.

Upon arrival at the emergencydepartment approximately seven hourspost-ingestion, the victim was awake,alert, oriented, and able to answer ques-tions. She had a Glasgow coma scalescore of 15 indicating that she was fullyconscious and aware of her surroundings.Vital signs were temperature 97.8ºF,pulse 106 beats/minute, respiratory rate18 breaths/minute, blood pressure 130/72mmHg and pulse oximeter 99%. Theheart rhythm sounded regular. The lungswere clear and the abdomen was soft withnormal bowel sounds. The skin waswarm and dry and neurologic examinationfound no focal deficits. The results ofroutine chemistry and hematology testswere unremarkable except for trace ke-tones.

Toxicological AnalysisThe toxicology laboratory of the

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation

Fig. 1 - Structure ofTetrahydrozoline

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C A S E N O T E S

Volume 33, Issue 1

to 210°C at 15°C/min then 210°C to 300°Cat 10°C/min. Identification was based onretention times and retention indices onboth columns, and confirmation was byGC/MS.

DiscussionToxicological examination deter-

mined tetrahydrozoline to be present and aUAC of 0.15 g/dL. There were no othersignificant toxicological findings. A typi-cal Tetrahydrozoline mass spectrum isshown in fig. 2. It is an imidazole α2-adrenergic agonist used for the treatmentof eye irritations and found in Visine® in astandard 0.05% w/v (500 mcg/mL) con-centration. The α2-adrenergic receptors areinvolved in regulating the autonomic andcardiovascular systems. Pharmacologicactions of tetrahydrozoline are peripheraland central α2-adrenergic receptor stimula-tion. When applied topically tetrahydro-zoline causes peripheral α1-adrenergicstimulation responsible for their vasocon-strictive and decongestive actions [8].When ingested, tetrahydrozoline stimulatesthe postsynaptic α2-receptors locatedwithin the CNS causing sedation and re-duces sympathetic outflow, which leads toperipheral vasodilation and lower bloodpressure [9, 14]. Effects for tetrahydro-zoline after oral ingestion may includedrowsiness, respiratory depression, brady-cardia, hypotension, hypotonia, muscleflaccidity, hypothermia and coma [1 – 3, 5– 8]. Because of rapid absorption, symp-toms develop within 15 to 30 minutes anddisappear after approximately 12 to 24hours, depending on the dose. Its elimina-tion half life is reported to be from 2 to 4hours [1, 5, 7, 8].

2. K.C. Osterhouldt, F.M. Henretig, Si-noatrial node arrest following tetrahy-drozoline ingestion, J Emerg Med 27(2004) 313 – 315.

3. W. Klein-Schwartz, R. Gorman, G.M.Oderda and A. Baig, Central nervoussystem depression from ingestion ofnonprescription eyedrops, Am JEmerg Med 2 (1984) 217–218.

4. E.H. Foerester, D. Hatchett, and J.C.Garriott, A rapid, comprehensivescreening procedure for basic drugs inblood or tissues by gas chromatogra-phy. J Anal Toxicol., 2 (1978) 50–55.

5. J.D. Tobias, Central nervous systemdepression following accidental inges-tion of Visine eye drops, Clin Pediatr35 (1996) 539–40.

6. P. Jensen, B. Edgren, L. Hall and J.C.Ring, Hemodynamic effects followingingestion of an imidazoline-containingproduct, Pediatr Emerg Med 5 (1989),pp. 110–112.

7. A. Daggy, R. Kaplan, R. Roberge and J.Akhtar, Pediatric Visine(tetrahydrozoline) ingestion: case re-port and review of imidazoline toxic-ity, Vet Human Toxicol 45 (2003), pp.210–212.

8. R. Lev and R.F. Clark, Visine overdose:case report of an adult with hemody-namic compromise, J Emerg Med 13(1995), pp. 649–652.

9. G.B. Hammer, The role of alpha2 ago-nists in pediatric anesthesia. Can JAnesth (2005) 52: R9.

10. M.A. LeBeau, A. Mozayani, Drug-facilitated sexual assault, a forensichandbook. London: Academic Press,2001.

11. R.C. Baselt, Disposition of toxic drugsand chemicals in man. (7th Ed.) Fos-ter City: Chemical Toxicology Insti-tute, 2000, pp. 883-884.

12. J.C. Garriott, Medical-legal aspects ofalcohol. (4th Ed.) Tucson, AZ, USA:Lawyers & Judges Publishing Com-pany, Inc., 2003.

13. A.W. Jones, Reference limits for urine/blood ratios of ethanol in two succes-sive voids from drinking drivers, J.Anal. Toxicol 26 (2002) 333–339.

14. J.B. Michael, M.D. Sztajnkrycer,Deadly pediatric poisons: nine com-mon agents that kill at low doses.Emerg Med Clin North Am. 22 (2004)1019–1050.

Ethanol is a selective CNS de-pressant at low doses and a general depres-sant at high doses. It decreases inhibitions,impairs perception, and may cause amne-sia and/or loss of consciousness [10]. Al-though, there is considerable intra- andinter-individual variation [12, 13], the vic-tim’s urine alcohol concentration (UAC)of a 0.15 g/dL can be used to estimate theexpected blood alcohol concentration(BAC) during the elimination phase [11 –13]. The expected BAC can be estimatedby dividing the UAC by a factor of 1.33,the presumed population average urine/blood ratio of ethanol [13]. The expectedBAC in our case was estimated to be 0.11g/dL. Had a second void been availablefrom the victim, the UAC in the secondspecimen would have reflected a moreaccurate BAC at the time of collection.Nevertheless, the first void gives an idea ofthe BAC during the time that the urine wasbeing produced and stored in the bladder.

In summary we report an unusualcase of drug-facilitated sexual assault in-volving tetrahydrozoline and ethanol. It ishighly likely that mixing an imidazoline,such as tetrahydrozoline, with ethanol willresult in enhanced CNS depressant effects.It is unclear whether the effects will bepotentiated or simply additive. The evi-dence of ethanol alone may be significantto the question of whether or not the victimmay have been able to give ‘‘informedconsent’’.

References1. H. Spiller, J. Rogers, T. Sawyer, Drug

facilitated sexual assault using anover-the-counter ocular solution con-taining tetrahydrozoline (Visine), LegMed 9 (2007) 192–195.

Fig. 2 - Typical electron impact mass spectrum of tetrahydrozoline

ToxTalk Page 13

C A S E N O T E S #1 ( C O N T I N U E D )

Introduction

Muscle relaxants can be involved inmedicolegal investigations, either by sui-cide or homicide1. In fact, the quaternarynitrogen muscle relaxant pancuronium isoften used as a component of the “lethalinjection” in capital punishment.

Vecuronium is an aminosteroidal non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocking agentindicated for facilitating tracheal intuba-tion. It is an antagonist to acetylcholinereceptors, which blocks motor neuronfunction at the end-plate. The onset of pa-ralysis occurs within a minute, with recov-ery about 45 to 65 minutes after the initialintubation dose. The ED90 (dose requiredto produce 90% suppression of the muscletwitch response with balanced anesthesia)has averaged 0.057 mg/kg (0.049 to 0.062mg/kg in various studies). An initialvecuronium bromide dose of 0.08 to 0.1mg/kg generally produces first depressionof twitch in approximately 1 minute, goodor excellent intubation conditions within2.5 to 3 minutes, and maximum neuromus-cular blockade within 3 to 5 minutes ofinjection in most patients.

When recovery from the effects ofvecuronium begins, it proceeds more rap-idly than recovery from pancuronium.Once spontaneous recovery has started,the neuromuscular block produced byvecuronium is readily reversed with vari-ous anticholinesterase agents, such aspyridostigmine, neostigmine, or edropho-nium in conjunction with an anticholiner-gic agent like atropine or glycopyrrolate.Rapid recovery is found with vecuronium,due to its short elimination half-life, al-though there have been occasional reportsof prolonged neuromuscular blockade inpatients in the intensive care unit.

At clinical doses of 0.04 to 0.1 mg/kg, 60 to 80% of vecuronium bromide isusually bound to plasma protein. The dis-tribution half-life following a single intra-venous dose (range 0.025 to 0.28 mg/kg)is approximately 4 minutes. In addition,the metabolite 3-desacetyl vecuroniumhas been rarely detected in human plasmafollowing prolonged clinical use in theICU. The 3-desacetyl vecuronium me-tabolite has been recovered in the urine ofsome patients in quantities that accountfor up to 10% of injected dose. This me-tabolite has been judged to have 50% ormore of the potency of the parent drug.Unlike other nondepolarizing skeletalmuscle relaxants, vecuronium has noclinically significant effects on hemody-namic parameters, nor does it cause ma-lignant hyperthermia, or contribute tosubstantial histamine release2.

Case History

A 40 year old white male wasfound unresponsive at home by his teen-age son. The decedent was pulled to theliving room, where CPR was initiatedunder the recommendation of 911 opera-tors. EMS arrived to find the decedentapneic and pulseless. ACLS protocolswere initiated, and the decedent was trans-ported to the ER. While in transit, theEMS responders administered 6 mg epi-nephrine, 2 mg atropine, 40 U vasopressinand 1 ampule of D50. The hospital ex-

amination revealed no signs of trauma.After several attempts to regain a pulse,he was pronounced dead.

Further investigations determinedthat the decedent's wife had died onemonth prior to this event, reportedly fromnatural causes. He often spoke to friendsand family about “going to be with hiswife”. The decedent was known to smokea pack of cigarettes per day, but did notuse drugs. This assertion was supportedby the absence of any medication or drugsat the residence. Also, the decedent wasemployed as a paramedic and had alwayspassed random drug tests.

Results

Initial screening and analysis offemoral blood excluded the presence ofcocaine, amphetamines, benzodiazepines,opiates, barbiturates, or antidepressants.The only notable analytes found werechlorpheniramine and ibuprofen, whichwere at therapeutic levels. An examina-tion of the vitreous humor revealed nor-mal concentrations of electrolytes,creatinine, urea, with typical amounts ofglucose and no ketone bodies. Furtheranalysis excluded exposure to carbonmonoxide, or toxic levels of acetamino-phen and salicylates. An otherwise unre-markable autopsy led the pathologist torequest further analyses. Since the dece-dent was employed as a paramedic, it wasspeculated that he had access to uncon-ventional drugs such as vecuronium,which would be overlooked in routinestudies.

Vecuronium is a unique analyte forLC-MS/MS analysis, since it contains twopositive charges per molecule when per-formed under mildly acidic electrosprayconditions3. Although the parent mass ofvecuronium is 557 amu, its quaternaryamine plus protonated tertiary amine con-tribute a mass to charge ratio of 279 m/z.Likewise, the metabolite 3-desacetylvecuronium parent mass is 515 amu,which yields 258 m/z.

C A S E N O T E S #2 : V E C U R O N I U M I M P L I C AT E D I N T H E

S U I C I D E O F A D E P R E S S E D P A R A M E D I C

Submitted by: Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office,Toxicology Laboratory, Houston, TX(HCMEToxicology@meo.hctx.net)

O

N+

H

N

O

H

H

H

O

O

O

N+

H

N

HO

H

H

H

O

3-Desacetyl Vecuronium

Vecuronium

Page 14 Volume 33, Issue 1

reminder that the role of the toxicologistis to evaluate the entire picture. Scenephotos, interviews, intent, chemistry, biol-ogy, and physics come together in deter-mining the cause of death.

References

1. Cirimele, V, Villain, M, Pepin, B,Ludes, B, Kintz, P, J Chromtog B,2003, 107-113.

2. http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?id=8077

3. Kerskes, CH, Lusthof, KJ, Zweipfen-ning, PG, Franke, JP, J Anal Toxicol.2002 Jan-Feb;26(1):29-34.

4. Vorce, SP, Mallak, CT, Jacobs, A, JAnal Toxicol 2008, July/August 422-427.

C A S E N O T E S #2 ( C O N T I N U E D )

An ammonium formate bufferfollowed by addition of methylene chlo-ride solvent was used to extractvecuronium from femoral blood and vitre-ous humor. Vecuronium was not detectedin the femoral blood, but it was found inthe vitreous humor. Its metabolite wasconfirmed in both femoral blood and vit-reous humor. These determinations sup-port the assertion that vecuronium wasintroduced before death.

Discussion

Vecuronium has been attributed todeaths of health care workers before4. Inthat case, the decedent worked in a surgi-cal environment and had access to intra-

G R AV E J U S T I C E , N E W S E R I E S O N T R U T V

SOFT Member, M. FredricRieders, Ph.D., a forensic toxicolo-gist, licensed lab director, andChairman of the Board of Direc-tors at NMS Labs, (a private foren-sic science laboratory in WillowGrove, PA), appeared on the pilotepisode of Grave Justice.

Grave Justice is a new se-ries on truTV. The show’s prem-ise is to investigate crime and jus-tice stories. This is done throughit’s unique telling of haunting nar-

ratives from the victims’ perspec-tive especially in cases where thevictim’s own body provides crucialevidence in solving the crime.

Dr. Rieders was approachedby the producers of the new seriesbecause of his expertise in forensictoxicology and asked to participatein the show highlighting the RobertCurley thallium death case. Thiswas an exciting opportunity for Dr.Rieders, since he and his late father,Dr. Fredric Rieders, had assisted in

venous needles, bags, vecuronium, andvarious pain medications. Apparently, thedecedent was using these compounds forrecreational purposes. Although the man-ner was accidental, it shows how danger-ous vecuronium can be when used outsideof a medical setting.

A seemingly non-toxicology relatedcase has yielded unique lessons in lookingfor signs of suicidal poisoning. Conven-tional overdose cases relate information byempty prescription bottles, suicide notes,and robust signals from initial screens. Inthis scenario, toxicological indicators wereobscured by a therapeutic amount ofvecuronium, which can be fatal withoutassisted breathing. This case serves as a

the hair analysis investigation partof the case in the early 1990’s.

The overwhelm-ing evidence ofthe hair analysiseventually led tothe solving ofthe case and theconfession ofMrs. Curley, thevictim’s wife.

ToxTalk Page 15

Michael Fredric Rieders, Ph.D.

Page 16 Volume 33, Issue 1

D R U G S I N T H E N E W S

Z O L P I D E M : A S L E E P AT T H E W H E E L ( A N D I N T H E K I T C H E N ,A N D O N T H E P H O N E , A N D AT T H E S U P E R M A R K E T , E T C . )

and Sonata®, respectively, even ifjust anecdotally, seem to be morehighly correlated to these phenom-ena. The Z-drugs share similarpharmacodynamic and pharmacoki-netic profiles. Ambien®, however,perhaps due to its market share, es-timated by some to be 52% of allnew sleep-aid prescriptions and asmuch as 84% among the Z-drugsalone, seems to have the dubiousdistinction of being the leader inparasomnia reports.

Zolpidem and DrivingSeveral authors have re-

ported on the increase in zolpidem-impaired driving in recent years,and a rather well-defined toxidromeof the zolpidem-impaired driver hasemerged. Some of the hallmarks ofzolpidem-impaired driving are asfollows:

Hitting stationary objects,including stationary vehicles

Speed well above or belowposted limits

Lane deviation Leaving the roadway Driving wrong direction

If you were writing this col-umn, which story would you openwith? Perhaps the one about theman who took 10 mg of zolpidem,went to bed, then arose during thenight, cooked a meal, consumed it,and returned to bed. Even afterseveral nights of this epicurean pur-suit, he would not believe the testi-mony of the witnesses of this activ-ity until confronted with videotapedevidence. Or how about the onewhere the man took 10 mg of zolpi-dem at bedtime, then was witnessedby his son to leave his house, starthis truck and back into a tree, returnto the driveway and go back insidehis house. Upon having troubleopening the bedroom door, the mankicked the door down, returned tobed and went back to sleep. Thenext morning he had no recollectionof the events. Or, for the more tab-loid-minded, perhaps the one aboutU.S. Representative Patrick Ken-nedy who reportedly took zolpidemand promethazine before driving hiscar into a security barricade nearthe U.S. Capitol, claiming he was“late for a vote”. He was correct inhis assertion, however -- the lastvote was some six hours earlier. Orperhaps you have an even more bi-zarre zolpidem story of your own.

It is only fair to mention thatbizarre parasomnias are not the ex-clusive realm of zolpidem, but arealso reported with several sedative-hypnotic medications. The “Z-drugs”, however, zolpidem, zopi-clone and zaleplon, going by thetrade names Ambien®, Lunesta®

Eyes appear to “look rightthrough” the officer

Slow speech Unsteady gait with side to

side and backward sway;often needing assistance tostand

Horizontal gaze nystagmus. Amnesia for events sur-

rounding driving/accident/reason for stop

Unable to comprehend orremember officer’s instruc-tions

Sleep-drivingBeyond the sometimes en-

tertaining, sleep-eating, sleep-shopping, and sleep-sex stories liesthe more serious and dangerousrealm familiar to the forensic toxi-cologist -- the sleep-driver. Defin-ing a sleep-driver is rather elusive.Arguably, any driver exhibiting thesigns and symptoms listed above,especially with amnesia for theevent, could be classified as a sleep-driver. Some may wish to define atrue sleep-driver as one who has notviolated any of the prescribingguidelines. That is, one who hastaken the drug in the proper dosage,without alcohol or other CNS de-pressants, and immediately prior toretiring to bed for an intended eighthours of sleep. Obviously, the lat-ter condition is the most difficult todetermine with any certainty. Onemust also ask the somewhat meta-physical question: What role doesintent and the lack of memory ofthe intent play in the equation; is itintent if you don’t remember having

By Dwain C. Fuller, D-FTCB, TC-NRCC

the intent? This notwithstanding,the evidence seems to be clear thatsome people do retire to bed aftertaking zolpidem, only to arise andperform complex tasks includingdriving without remembering hav-ing done so. The exact definition, Iwill leave to you.

Zolpidem alone has beenimplicated in sleep-driving behav-ior, but as I have previously alludedto, there is a correlative, if not nec-essarily a causal, relationship withthe coadministration of zolpidemand SSRI’s, benzodiazepines, orother CNS depressant medicationswith this phenomenon. It is cer-tainly logical to assume that co-ingestion of other medications withCNS depressant effects in additionto zolpidem would contribute to theobserved impairment. However, asReidy, Gennaro, Steele, and Wallsaptly point out, “The combination ofantidepressants and zolpidem is ex-pected because of the large numberof cases of depressed patients find-ing it difficult to sleep and requiringthe coadministration of thesedrugs.”

In these days of the internet,rumor and anecdotal accounts oftenfeed public hysteria and take on alife of their own. Indeed, asclaimed by the manufacturer, thepercentage of zolpidem-relatedparasomnias may be quite low as apercentage; however, with nearly 30million prescriptions for zolpidemin the U.S. alone, even statisticaloutliers can become prominentnumbers. As one might expect, it isdifficult to obtain good numbers asto the incidence of complex para-somnias such as sleep-driving and

D R U G S I N T H E N E W S (C O N T I N U E D )their relation to zolpidem. How-ever, amnesia and somnambulismare both behaviors related to theevents we are discussing. Glean-ing from Ambien’s prescribinginformation, there was a 1% inci-dence of amnesia in three placebo-controlled long-term efficacy trialsinvolving Ambien®. Also, whilebeing reported, somnambulism hadan incidence of less than 0.1% in aclinical trial involving 3,660 sub-jects. To play with the math a lit-tle, if one takes the amnesia num-ber at face value and gives thebenefit of the doubt to the som-nambulism number and assumesthat the “less than 0.1%” is actu-ally only 0.01%, at 30,000,000prescriptions, one would expect300,000 incidents of amnesia and3000 incidents of somnambulism.This is obviously speculative andperhaps even an abuse of statistics,however, for whatever reasons, theFood and Drug Administration hastaken notice.

In December of 2006 theFDA issued a request to manufac-turers of multiple sleep disorderproducts, including the makers ofAmbien® to revise the productlabeling to include warnings aboutpotential adverse events including,”Complex sleep-related behaviorswhich may include sleep-driving,making phone calls, and preparingfood (while asleep).” Accordinglythe package insert for Ambien®now contains this warning:“Complex behaviors such as“sleep-driving” (i.e., driving whilenot fully awake after ingestion of asedative-hypnotic, with amnesiafor the event) have been reported

with sedative-hypnotics, includingzolpidem. These events can occurin sedative-hypnotic-naïve as wellas sedative-hypnotic-experiencedpersons. Although behaviors suchas “sleep driving” may occur withAmbien alone at therapeutic doses,the use of alcohol and other CNSdepressants with Ambien appears toincrease the risk of such behaviors,as does the use of Ambien at dosesexceeding the maximum recom-mended dose. Due to the risk to thepatient and the community, discon-tinuation of Ambien should bestrongly considered for patientswho report a “sleep-driving” epi-sode. Other complex behaviors(e.g., preparing and eating food,making phone calls, or having sex)have been reported in patients whoare not fully awake after taking asedative-hypnotic. As with “sleepdriving”, patients usually do notremember these events.”

Pharmacology and MetabolismZolpidem is a hypnotic

agent with a chemical structure un-related to benzodiazepines, barbitu-rates, pyrrolopyrazines, pyra-zolopyrimidines, or other drugswith known hypnotic properties.Zolpidem acts primarily at theGABA-BZ receptor complex andshares some of the pharmacologicalproperties of the benzodiazepines.However, in contrast to the benzo-diazepines, which non-selectivelybind to and activate all BZ receptorsubtypes, zolpidem in-vitro bindsthe BZ1 receptor preferentially witha high affinity ratio of the alpha1/alpha5 subunits. This selectivebinding of zolpidem on the BZ1

Please send your interesting contributions for “Drugs In The News” to Section Editor,Dwain Fuller, at Dwain.Fuller@va.gov

Page 17ToxTalk

receptor, while not absolute, mayexplain the relative absence of my-orelaxant and anticonvulsant ef-fects in animal studies as well asthe preservation of deep sleep(stages 3 and 4) in human studiesof zolpidem at hypnotic doses.

The pharmacokinetic pro-file of zolpidem is characterized bya rapid absorption from the gastro-intestinal tract and a short elimina-tion half-life. In a single-dosecrossover study of 45 healthy sub-jects administered 5 and 10 mg ofzolpidem tartrate tablets, the meanCmax were 50 (range: 29 – 113) and121 (range: 58 – 272) ng/mL, re-spectively, with a mean Tmax of 1.6hours for both. The half-life ofzolpidem is reported to be approxi-mately 2.5 hours (range: 1.4 – 4.5hrs). The major metabolic iso-forms involved in zolpidem me-tabolism are CYP3A4 (~60%),CYP2C9 (~22%), and CYP1A2(~14%). The fact that approxi-mately 60% of zolpidem’s metabo-lism is mediated by the CYP3A4isoform, gives rise to the possibil-ity that CYP3A4 inhibitors, includ-ing grapefruit juice, may prolongthe elimination half-life of zolpi-dem.

The metabolism of zolpi-dem produces at least six inactivemetabolites. The two major me-tabolites are formed by the methyl

D R U G S I N T H E N E W S (C O N T I N U E D )

oxidation of the phenyl and imida-zopyridine moieties of zolpidem.

When taken alone and asdirected, that is, sleeping for a full 8hours after use, zolpidem has beenshown to exert no significant resid-ual driving effects 10 – 11 hoursafter one night of bedtime treat-ment, which is in contrast to manybenzodiazepine hypnotics.

Analytical considerationsImmunoassays are commer-

cially available for zolpidem, how-ever, since zolpidem is extensivelymetabolized and not readily ex-creted unchanged in the urine, im-munoassays should be carefully se-lected for target compounds consis-tent with the specimens to be ana-lyzed.

Zolpidem is readily detect-able by GC or GC/MS analysis fol-lowing a common Foerster-Masontype extraction for alkaline drugs.However, because both of the majormetabolites of zolpidem, I and II,are amphoteric molecules, a di-rected SPE extraction followed byderivatization would likely be moreappropriate for these compounds.

Zolpidem and the courtsAs previously mentioned,

zolpidem-impaired driving is be-coming a major issue in the courts.Interestingly, with the advent of theFDA-requested warnings for zolpi-dem and related drugs, the“admission” of these possible para-somnias has become useful as a de-fense against DWI or DUIDcharges. This is known as the“Ambien Defense”.

In 2007, the DWI chargesagainst a North Texas woman,Phyllis Graham, were dropped aftersuccessfully arguing that she didnot intentionally drive nor have anyrecollection of driving her hus-band’s truck down the block andcrashing it into a house beforewalking back home and returning tobed. Ms. Graham’s urine testshowed only zolpidem and traces ofphenobarbital, the latter presumablyfrom a gastrointestinal medication,but no alcohol.

In Massachusetts, in 2006,Ki Yong O, a pharmaceutical attor-ney, drove off the road onto theshoulder and struck Anthony

Zolpidem

Page 18 Volume 33, Issue 1

Laura J. Liddicoat, WisconsinState Laboratory of Hygiene,Madison, Wisconsin, Presentedat the Society of Forensic Toxi-cologists Annual Meeting, 2005

The Zzz Drugs: From Analysis toInterpretation. H Chip Walls,National Institute of Justice/RTIInternational, Forensic ScienceEducation Program, RTI.org,2009

Case Report: Zolpidem Tartrate andSomnambulism. Cpt. JeffHarazin, Maj. Timothy R. Beri-gan, Military Medicine, Vol164, September 1999

Zolpidem-induced Sleep-driving.Clinical Communication, JohnA. Doane; Anthony S. Dalpiaz,The American Journal of Medi-cine, Vol 121, Issue 11, No-vember 2008

Residual Effects of Sleep Medica-tion on Driving Ability. Joris C.Verster, Dieuwke S. Veldhui-jzen, Edmund R. Volkerts,Sleep Medicine Reviews, Vol-ume 8, 2004, 309-325

Zolpidem. Merck Manual Online,www.merck.com, accessed2/4/09

Zolpidem and Driving Impairment.Barry K. Logan, Fiona J. Cou-per, Journal of Forensic Sci-ences, 46(1), 2001, 105-110

The Incidence of Zolpidem Use inSuspected DUI Drivers in Mi-ami-Dade Florida: A Compara-tive Study Using ImmunalysisZolpidem ELISA KIT and GasChromatography-Mass Spec-trometry Screening. L. Reidy,W. Gennaro, B.W. Steele, H.C.Walls, Journal of AnalyticalToxicology, Vol 32, October2008, 688-694

ConclusionWhen taken as directed,

zolpidem is apparently an effectiveand safe sleeping medication, asnearly 30 million prescriptionswould indicate. However, as withmost medications, that is not to sayit is without side-effects or poten-tial complications, especially con-sidering the many possible interin-dividual differences in metabolism,etc. And while many of the driv-ing under the influence cases in-volving zolpidem also involve adriver using zolpidem in a mannerinconsistent with prescribingguidelines, the objective observermust concede that in some cases atleast, the driver may simply beguilty of having the bad luck ofbeing a statistical outlier in a vastpopulation.

ReferencesSome Sleeping Pill Users Range

Far Beyond Bed. StephanieSaul, The New York Times,March 8, 2006

DWI Charges Dropped in Ambien‘Sleep Driving’ Case. Janet St.James, WFAA-TV, Monday,March 19, 2007

Landmark Ruling in Stilnox Sleep-Driving Case. Annabel Staf-ford, The Age, April 11, 2008

Prosecutors Concerned AmbienUse Excuses Criminal Behav-ior. TheBostonChannel.com,WCVB Boston, February 16,2008

Ambien®(zolpidem tartrate) Pre-scribing Information, Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, Bridge-water, NJ 08807, June 2008

Zolpidem Impaired Drivers in Wis-consin: A Six Year Retrospec-tive. William Johnson, PatrickM. Harding, Amy K. Cochems,

Raucci, knocking him into the mid-dle of the highway and severing hisleg. Mr. Raucci was pronounceddead at the scene. Subsequent toxi-cology tests showed that Mr. O’sblood was positive for zolpidem.Mr. O was charged with operatingunder the influence and motor vehi-cle homicide. However, after a sixday trial, Mr. O was acquitted. Inhis decision, Judge KennethFishman wrote that “the court is un-able to conclude beyond a reason-able doubt that the defendant wasvoluntarily intoxicated when he op-erated his motor vehicle.”

While one would presumablybe more able to take advantage ofthe “Ambien Defense” if the driverwas taking zolpidem as directed, thatis, without alcohol and without otherCNS depressants, that is not alwaysthe case.

In New South Wales, Austra-lia, Robert James Kingston wasfound not guilty of driving with ablood alcohol concentration of0.105%, after Judge Colin Pheganfound on appeal that there was a“real possibility” that he was “sleep-driving” after taking a Stilnox®(zolpidem) tablet. Judge Phegansaid he was satisfied that the scien-tific evidence was now strongenough to “at least raise a possibil-ity, a real possibility, that the expla-nation for what happened on this oc-casion was a state of sleep-drivingcaused by the use of the drug”.Judge Phegan further explained thatMr. Kingston’s state of undress, hisapparent hallucination, the fact thathe was on the wrong side of the roadat the time of the accident, and hisinability to remember anything ofthe incident were consistent with astate of “automatism”- where a per-son has no control over their actions– caused by taking the drug.

D R U G S I N T H E N E W S (C O N T I N U E D )

ToxTalk Page 19

Tapentadol HCl (immediaterelease, 50 mg, 75 mg, and 100 mg) is anew, centrally acting oral analgesic de-veloped by Johnson & Johnson that wasapproved by the FDA in November 2008for the treatment of moderate to severeacute pain in adults 18 years of age orolder. The drug does not yet have atrade name and is under review by theDEA for scheduling (1). Extended re-lease tablets are being developed forchronic pain.

Analysis

Since this drug is so new, littleinformation could be found concerningits analysis. Using the online acid disso-ciation calculator at http://aceorganic.pearsoncmg.com, we foundthe pKa of 10.0 for the phenolic moiety,and 9.8 for the tertiary nitrogen. Thesevalues are consistent with the similarsubstituent groups in albuterol and di-methylamphetamine, respectively. Foranalysis using gas chromatography/massspectrometry it seems likely that deri-vatization of the hydroxyl group will benecessary and the proposed trimethyl-silyl derivative is shown below. In addi-tion, organic extraction of tapentadolmay be difficult due to the amphoteric

N E W D R U G S

Lauren L. Richards-Waugh1,2 and James C. Kraner2

1Marshall University School of Medicine, 1542 Spring Valley Drive, Huntington, WV 25704-93982West Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, 619 Virginia Street, W. Charleston, WV 25302

Send interesting “New Drugs” articles to Section Editor, Dan Anderson at danderson@coroner.lacounty.gov

Page 20 Volume 33, Issue 1

nature of the compound. Analysis usingliquid chromatography may be morereadily utilized.

Pharmacology

Tapentadol is a unique moleculethat acts as a mu-opioid receptor agonistand a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor.It is a pure enantiomer that does not re-quire metabolic activation nor produceactive metabolites. Data from clinicalstudies suggests the efficacy of tapenta-dol is comparable to strong opioids.Common side effects include nausea,vomiting, dizziness, headache, and som-nolence. The common GI side effects ofother opioids are significantly reducedwith tapentadol treatment, which couldpotentially increase usage due to in-creased tolerability.

Absorption of tapentadol israpid, with Cmax occurring in the serumbetween 1.25 and 1.5 hours post-dose.Tapentadol is primarily detected as con-jugated metabolites in the serum (Cmax

for conjugates is 1.25 to 2 hr). Oralbioavailability is 31.9 ± 6.8%. The mainroute of metabolism is glucuronidationwith minor phase-1 hydroxylation anddemethylation reactions. Approximately99% of the dose is accounted for in the

TA P E N TA D O L

Submitted by Section Editor, Dan Anderson, FTSABFT

N(CH3)2

CH3

H2C

HON(CH3)2

CH3

H2C

SiOCH3

CH3

CH3

Tapentadol Tapentadol (proposed trimethylsilyl derivative)

CH3 CH3pKa 10.0(acid)

pKa 9.8(base)

Chemical Name: 3-[(1R,2R)-3-(dimethylamino)-1-ethyl-2-methylpropyl]phenolChemical Formula: C14H24NOMolecular Weight: 221.18 (as hydrochloride 257.80)

urine (69% as glucuronide and sulfateconjugates, 27% as other metabolites and3% unchanged) and 1% in the feces.More than 50% of the dose is excretedafter 4 h (t1/2 = 3.93 h) and over 95%within 24 h of dosing (2).

As with other mu-opioid recep-tor agonists, respiratory depression is apossible side effect of tapentadol. Tapen-tadol presents the same potential forabuse as other opioids. Concurrent use ofalcohol or other CNS depressants in-creases the risk of a fatal respiratory de-pression. There is a potential for life-threatening serotonin syndrome withTapentadol due to the norepinephrinereuptake inhibition action. The risk ofdeveloping serotonin syndrome is in-creased with concomitant use of otherSNRIs or other drugs that increase sero-tonin levels (SSRIs, TCAs, MAOIs, andtriptans).

References1. Tapentadol approved as pain reliever,

2009, Am J Health-Syst Pharm,66:8.

2. Terlinden R, Ossig J, Fliegert F,Lange C, Goehler K. Absorption,metabolism, and excretion of 14C-labeled Tapentadol HCl in healthymale subjects. Eur J Dru

VA RE N I CL I N E (CH A N T I X® )

N E W D R U G S ( C O N T I N U E D )

ToxTalk Page 21

Robert L. Hargrove and Douglas L. SmithNorth Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Campus Box 7580, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7580hargrove@ocme.unc.edu; dlsmith@ocme.unc.edu

Varenicline is the active ingre-dient in Chantix®, the most recent antismoking medication to be approved bythe FDA (May, 2006). It is a partial

nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonistwhich binds to the nicotine receptorsbut stimulates the receptors less thannicotine. The agonist action helps toease nicotine withdrawal symptoms.Varenicline is administered in 0.5 mgtablets, initially 1 tablet per day for 3days followed by a maintenance doseof 0.5 mg twice a day for 4-7 days andthen 1 mg tablet twice a day for theduration of cessation of smoking. Thedrug is not recommended for use withany other form of smoking cessationsuch as nicotine patches or bupropion.In regards to pharmacology, 92% ofVarenicline is excreted in the urine asunchanged parent drug. There is noevidence that Varenicline either inhib-its or induces any of the cytochromeP450 system substrates.

Common Name: VareniclineTrade Names: Chantix®

Manufacturer: PfizerChemical Name: 7,8,9,10-tetrahydro-6,10-methano- 6H-pyrazino (2,3-h)(3) benzazepineChemical Formula: C13H13N3

Molecular Weight: 211.26CAS Number: 249296-44-4 & 375815-87-5Administration: Tablets – 0.5 and 1.0 mg tablets

N

N

NH

Toxicology

Extraction:A 1 mg tablet was crushed and dissolved in 10 mL of methanol yield-

ing a ~ 0.1 mg/mL solution. 2mL of blood was supplemented with 0.1 mL of~ 0.1 mg/mL solution and 1 ug/mL alphaprodine as internal standard and thensubjected to a basic butyl chloride/ ether (3:1) liquid/liquid extraction withacidic back extraction and hexane wash step. Extracts were split between GC-NPD and GC/MS for quantification and peak identification, respectively.

Detection: GC/MS (168, 127, 181, 44 m/z)Elution Order (RT): Chlorpheniramine (11.16)

CHANTIX (11.45)Venlafaxine (11.67)C:\Xcalibur\PILL

10 11

Time (min)

0

50

100

Ch

an

tix

Alp

ha

pro

din

e 9.96

11.4510.2710.91

NL:3.99E6

TIC F: MSPILL

50 100 150 200

m/z

0

50

100168.01

127.01 181.0944.03 62.99 231.10

Chemical Structure of Varenicline

Page 22 Volume 33, Issue 1

P E R S O N A L I Z E D J U S T I C E , T R A N S L AT I O N A L P H A R M A C O G E N O M I C S

A N D P E R S O N A L I Z E D M E D I C I N E —R E L E VA N T T O T H E F O R E N S I C S C I E N C E S ?

Since the completion of theHuman Genome Project, transla-tional pharmacogenomics has be-come one of the tangible applica-tions for optimizing drug therapywith application to PersonalizedMedicine. The majority of the publi-cations are, however, only concep-tual or anecdotal. In the past fewyears another application of phar-macogenomics developed in themedical examiner/coroner setting,i.e., selected use for certification ofdrug related deaths - the so calledmolecular autopsy. Postmortemfindings can shed light on the effectof genetic variation on drug metabo-lism and toxicity and these new ap-plications can strengthen the emerg-ing practice of Personalized Medi-cine. Concurrently, the use of phar-macogenomics is expanding intonew area concerning drug sensitiv-ity and resistance. The most recentfocus has been on the use of phar-macogenomics testing as an adjunctto warfarin dosing by genotypingCYP 2C9 and VKORC1 genes1 andfor antiepileptic drugs such as car-bamazepine and phenytoin by geno-typing HLA in the Asian population.In major metropolitan areas(including San Francisco and Mil-waukee), attorneys have begun touse television advertising, encourag-ing legal action for patients who ex-perienced Steven Johnson syndromeas a complication of drug therapy(carbamazepine or phenytoin) andHLA poor genotype. In the hotlydebated area of using pharmacoge-nomics data as an adjunct in war-farin therapy, a recent article inCAP Today2 assessed the outcomedata concluding that more well de-

signed prospective studies wouldbe needed prior to widespread clini-cal application. However, the arti-cle quoted Dr. Eby of WashingtonUniversity “ ---- In the interim per-haps there will be some event wecan’t predict now that will rapidlyaccelerate the use of pharmacoge-nomics-based warfarin dosing—amedicolegal case or a high-profileindividual having an adverse ef-fect.” These events and opinionsare beginning to shape and buildthe framework for PersonalizedMedicine, and in the process, willbring about the emerging practiceof Personalized Justice. When con-templating whether PersonalizedJustice is relevant to the forensicsciences, we start by asking the fol-lowing questions:

1. What might constitute theemerging practice of Personal-ized Justice?

2. Why is Personalized Justice rele-vant to forensic sciences andforensic pathology and toxicol-ogy in particular?

A proposed definition ofPersonalized Justice was recentlypresented in an international meet-ing in Beijing3 (October 2007) andhas since been published in someupcoming chapters and articles 4-7.Personalized Justice may be de-fined as “the inclusion of molecularanalyses – genomic and proteomic,in criminal and forensic proceed-ings, in the deliberation for possiblegenetic and proteomic contributionsto adverse behavior/outcome. “ Asshown in the figure, PersonalizedJustice complements PersonalizedMedicine through the commonality

of pharmacogenomics and possibly,other “omics” sciences in the future.Together, Personalized Justice andPersonalized Medicine would offer anew paradigm of social balance.Whereas . . . .

Personalized Medicine advo-cates the use of five “ rights”, i.e.,the patient’s drug therapy might beoptimized by identifying: right pa-tient, right treatment, right diagno-sis (functional testing such as TDMand toxicology, pharmacogenomics,proteomics and other “omics” suchas metabolonomics, and molecularimaging), right drug dose, and righttime. On the other side of the socialbalance, Personalized Justice wouldaddress the opposite “ not rights -wrongs ” which might result in sub-optimal therapy, drug toxicity andother adverse outcomes. For the cur-rent assessment, it would be possibleto propose a framework withinwhich Personalized Medicine andPersonalized Justice overlap, givingrise to an inevitable social balance.Such might be illustrated in the cur-rent epidemic of abuse of prescrip-tion drugs. We know the genetic

Guest Editorial by Steven H. Y. Wong, Ph.D. (a) and Christopher Happy, M.D. (b)

Complementary relationship of Personal-ized Medicine and Personalized Justice(Reproduced with permission from ref. 6.Wong SHY in Clarke’s Analysis of Drugsand Poisons 4th edition. In press).

ToxTalk

variation of drug metabolizinggenes such as CYP 2D6 would af-fect drug metabolism and efficacy.For a worker with CYP 2D6 homo-zygous genotype with correspond-ing poor phenotype, drug metabo-lism for opioids such as oxycodonewould be impaired, affecting me-tabolism and pain control and lead-ing to “ poor “ work performance.In the event of a workplace acci-dent, the toxicology result might becomplemented with pharmacoge-nomics. Together, these resultswould be included in medicolegalproceedings. Further, as indicated,warfarin genotyping might be“accelerated“ by a medicolegalcase. These are some possible sce-narios that would benefit from theemerging practice of PersonalizedJustice.

In addressing the secondquestion, it would be important toacknowledge the historic and wellaccepted practice of DNA finger-printing which applies the geneticcoding for identity testing as in ge-netic policing. Personalized Justicewould complement and extend theuse of genomics and other “omics”science in the future. As forensicscientists, we apply molecular diag-nostics that advances our practice,and in so doing, enable the practiceof Personalized Medicine. Alongwith toxicologic and pathologicfindings, pharmacogenomics wouldserve as an adjunct to provide “value-added “ interpretation. Thesefindings may be used indirectly tooptimize patient drug therapy lateron. While the clinical applicationsof pharmacogenomics for warfarindosing awaits more robust outcomestudies, forensic pathologists andtoxicologists might help by applyingmolecular diagnostics such as phar-macogenomics in cases where case

history indicated warfarin therapyand autopsy showed hemorrhage.Genotyping CYP 2C9 and 4F2, andVKORC1 genes might be helpful inthe molecular autopsy to account forsignificant of dosage variation, andtherefore to further assess the causalrelationship of warfarin to hemor-rhage in the case of interest. Thesefindings might add to the justifica-tions or might refute the use of phar-macogenomics based warfarin dos-ing!

By addressing the above twoquestions and by surveying the rap-idly developing molecular diagnosticfield, the emerging opportunities ofPersonalized Justice would enhancethe profession of forensic pathologyand toxicology. In chatting withbudding scientists during toxicologyand forensic science meetings, manyof these “younger “students havealready included pharmacogenomicsin their studies. Just as important, itwould be timely to outreach to legalcolleagues in order to “ build “ thenecessary legal, educational and sci-entific foundations and framework.It is time to recognize the possibleemergence of Personalized Justiceand its enabling effect on Personal-ized Medicine.

(a) Professor of Pathology, MedicalCollege of Wisconsin, Scientific Di-rector, Toxicology Department. Mil-waukee County Medical Examiner’sOffice

(b) Medical Examiner of MilwaukeeCounty and Pathology Dept., Medi-cal College of Wisconsin

References1. The International Warfarin Phar-

macogenetics Consortium. Esti-mation of the Warfarin Dosewith Clinical and Pharmacoge-netic Data. N Engl J Med2009;360:753-64.

2. Check W. PGx Tests for War-farin Dosing—How Soon? CAPToday, p.1, 34-42, Jan. 2009.

3. Wong SH. Pharmacogenomicand Personalized Medicine forDrug Addiction and Toxicology:Towards Personalized Justice?11th Asian Pacific Congress ofClinical Biochemistry, Beijing,China, Oct. 2007.

4. Wong SH, JM Jentzen, RZ Shi,and the Forensic Pathology/Toxicology Methadone Pharma-cogenomics Study Group(FPTMPGxSG). (2008). Person-alized Medicine Enabling Per-sonalized Justice: MethadonePharmacogenomics as an Ad-junct - for molecular autopsy,and for addiction and drivingunder the influence of drugs(DUID). CCLM, 46: A118.

5. Wong SHY, FPTMPGxSG.(2008). Pharmacogenomics forPersonalized Medicine of Addic-tion, for Forensic Toxicology,and for the Emerging Personal-ized Justice. CCLM, 46: A228.

6. Wong SHY. (In press) Pharmaco-genomics for Forensic Toxicol-ogy. In Olaf H. Drummer, Sec-tion Editor (Toxicology),Jamieson A, Moenssens A. Co-Ed., Wiley’s Encylopedia ofForensic Science, Wiley, Chich-ester, UK.

7. Wong SHY. (In press). Pharma-cogenomics as Molecular Au-topsy- An Adjunct to ForensicPathology/Toxicology: FromGregor Mendel to PersonalizedMedicine and Personalized Jus-tice. in Clarke’s Analysis ofDrugs and Poisons 4th edition.Moffat, D Osselton and B Wid-dop, Eds. Royal PharmaceuticalSociety Publishing, London.

Page 23

Editorial—Continued

AM E RI CAN B OARD OF FO R ENS IC TO XIC OL OGYSubmitted by Marina Stajić, Ph.D., D-ABFT, President, ABFT Board of Directors

Page 24 Volume 33, Issue 1

On behalf of ABFT, the Board of Directors has issued the following statement in response to theNational Academy of Sciences congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council releasedon February 19, 2009:

STRENGTHENING FORENSIC TOXICOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES:

AMERCIAN BOARD OF FORENSIC TOXICOLOGY RESPONSE TO

THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES RECOMMENDATIONS

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, FEBRUARY 23, 2009. The National Academy of Sciences(NAS) congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council released on Feb-ruary 19, 2009 finds deficiencies in the nation's forensic science system and calls for major re-forms and new research. The report also calls for the development of accreditation standards,guidelines for quality control, proficiency testing, certification and a code of ethics for expertsin all aspects of forensic science.

The report notes that the American Board of Forensic Toxicology (ABFT) provides these ele-ments and specific educational, training and experience requirements, including a series ofcompetency tests for certification and participation in proficiency testing in the area of forensictoxicology.

The ABFT has developed and implemented all of the standards called for by the NAS report inthe field of forensic toxicology and supports the development and implementation of thesestandards in other forensic disciplines. In 1976, the ABFT implemented a professional certifi-cation program for toxicologists and has since certified more than 300 diplomates and special-ists in the field. In 1996, ABFT introduced a comprehensive, specialized laboratory accredita-tion program. To date, 24 leading laboratories are ABFT-accredited, including nine laborato-ries in states that mandate such accreditation.

The main barrier to expanding compliance with ABFT standards in the forensic toxicologycommunity has been the absence of a national mandate and the limited funding available tomany state programs. Even when sound, accepted standards and science are available, achiev-ing the quality, validity, and integrity of forensic testing requires a significant investment ofresources. The ability to meet the goals of the NAS report will be contingent on the govern-ment’s financial commitment to the forensic sciences through funding the technology, staffing,education, training, quality assurance and accreditation programs for the laboratories perform-ing this critical public service.

Forensic toxicology encom-passes the measurement of alcohol,drugs and other toxic substances inbiological specimens and interpre-tation of such results in a medicole-gal context. The purpose of the

American Board of Forensic Toxi-cology is to establish and enhancevoluntary standards for the practiceof forensic toxicology and for theexamination and recognition of sci-entists and laboratories providing

forensic toxicology services. Pleasevisit www.ABFT.org for more infor-mation. Contact Dr. Marina Stajićat (212) 447-2637 or Dr. BruceGoldberger at (352) 494-7569 foradditional information.

ABFT Board of Directors has restructured thecertification application, re-certification appli-cation and continuing education fees. EffectiveJanuary 1, 2009, a non-refundable fee of $150is to be applied to all new applications, replac-ing the previous $300 fee. The re-certificationfee of $300 is no longer required every fiveyears. Instead, a fee of $100 is required withthe annual submission of continuing educationcredits. Certificants will still need to submit are-certification application every five years inorder to remain in good standing.

At the ABFT annual meeting in February 2009,the following Directors were elected to a threeyear term (July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2012):

Bruce Goldberger, Ph.D., D-ABFTGraham Jones, Ph.D., D-ABFTBarry Logan, Ph.D., D-ABFTSusan Mills, M.S., FTS-ABFTJeri Ropero-Miller, Ph.D., D-ABFT

A BFT NE WS (C O N T I N U E D )

ToxTalk Page 25

The above re-elected and newly elected Directorsjoin the following Directors currently servingtheir respective terms:

Yale Caplan, Ph.D., D-ABFTDaniel Isenschmid, Ph.D., D-ABFTFrederick Fochtman, Ph.D., D-ABFTJoseph Manno, Ph.D., D-ABFTJ. Rod McCutcheon, B.S., D-ABFTRobert Middleberg, Ph.D., D-ABFTTheodore Shults, J.D., M.S, Public MemberElizabeth Spratt, M.S., D-ABFTMarina Stajić, Ph.D., D-ABFT

ABFT no longer has the USA/Canada residency re-quirement for certification. All other requirementsremain the same. The examination is administered (inEnglish only!) twice each year, at the AmericanAcademy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) AnnualMeeting and at the Society of Forensic Toxicologists(SOFT) Annual Meeting. Additionally, a candidatemay request to have an examination administered at adifferent location under the direction of a member ofthe Board of Directors. We welcome and encourageour international colleagues to consider applying forABFT certification. Please visit www.ABFT.org formore information.

The ABFT Board elected the following officers inFebruary 2009 to a one-year term (July 1, 2009 –June 30, 2010):

President:Marina Stajić, Ph.D., D-ABFTVice President:Bruce Goldberger, Ph.D., D-ABFTSecretary:Daniel Isenschmid, Ph.D., D-ABFTTreasurer:Robert Middleberg, Ph.D., D-ABFT

REMINDERS:

Directors McCurdy and Osiewicz will be leaving the Board on June 30, 2009, having indicated thatthey do not wish to be considered to serve another term. The ABFT Board expresses their gratitude to Drs.McCurdy and Osiewicz for many years of dedicated service.

The staff of the Forensic Toxicology Program atthe Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene hassuccessfully met all the requirements and becamethe latest ABFT accredited laboratory.

The following four toxicologists have successfullymet all the requirements and joined the ranks ofABFT certificants since October 2008:

LeAndra Higginbotham, Ph.D., D-ABFTSherwood Lewis, Ph.D., D-ABFTKathy Erwin, M.S., FTS-ABFTXiaoqin Shan, Ph.D., FTS-ABFT

CONGRATULATIONS:

APPRECIATION:

Page 26 Volume 33, Issue 1

N AT I O N A L S A F E T Y

C O U N C I L — C O M M I T T E E O N

A L C O H O L A N D O T H E R D R U G SSubmitted by Laura Liddicoat

A . A . F. S .N E W S

T O X I C O L O G Y S E C T I O NSubmitted by Jeri Ropero-Miller, Ph.D., DABFT

The Executive Board of the NSC/CAOD met Sundayafternoon, February 15, 2009 at the American Academy of Fo-rensic Sciences Conference in Denver, Colorado. The full com-mittee of the NSC/COAD met Monday morning, February 16.

Officers for the coming year include: Chair- Mack Cowan Vice Chair- Dr. Dennis Canfield Secretary- Laura Liddicoat

Laurel J. Farrell was the recipient of the Robert F.Borkenstein Award which was conferred upon her Monday eve-ning. As always, Dr. Kurt M. Dubowski presented the award anddid a marvelous job of filling in the attendees on Laurel’s child-hood, marriage, children and illustrious career in Forensic Sci-ence. The Borkenstein Award is given to one who has a mini-mum tenure of 25 years of active service in the area of alcohol/drugs and traffic safety, has contributed to that field to a degreethat his/her achievements are nationally recognized and has aminimum of 10 years of active and productive involvement as avolunteer with the National Safety Council.

The committee adopted the following position state-ment regarding access to the Source Code of the software forevidential breath-alcohol analyzers:

It is the position of the National Safety Council’s Com-mittee on Alcohol and Other Drugs that access to theSource Code of the software of an evidential breath-alcohol analyzer is not pertinent, required, or usefulfor examination or evaluation of the analyzer’s accu-racy, scientific reliability, forensic validity, or otherrelevant characteristics, or of the trustworthiness andreliability of analysis results produced by the ana-lyzer. These matters can be and have been fully as-sessed and examined by multiple other well estab-lished and recognized methods and procedures incommon use worldwide; and many other adequateand appropriate means exist to challenge evidentialbreath-alcohol analysis results.

For a copy of the full statement including introduction,comment and references, please contact Laura Liddicoat atll@mail.slh.wisc.edu.

The next joint meeting of the NSC CAOD and Execu-tive Board will be held at the SOFT conference in OklahomaCity, Oklahoma on Friday, October 23, 2009. Exact time andlocation will be announced later. To access CAOD policies,previous Borkenstein Award recipients or learn more about thecommittee go to www.nsc.org and type in Committee on Alcoholand Other Drugs under the search engine.

From February 16th to 23rd of this year, more than 3200forensic scientists traveled to Denver, Colorado to attend the 61st

annual AAFS meeting themed “Forensic Science: Envisioning andCreating the Future”. The Toxicology Section had a little over 100of its almost 500 members in attendance this year, down almost10% from last year’s Academy meeting.

Ken Ferslew was Toxicology Section Program Chair for2009. He put together a very interesting and worthwhile programof 31 scientific posters and 30 scientific platform presentations.Phil Kemp was the Workshop Chair and his hard work was re-warded with six great workshops that were toxicology specific ormultidisciplinary with toxicology involvement.

The Tox Section had special sessions on Drugs and Driv-ing and one on Postmortem Pediatric Toxicology and a multi-disciplinary session with Path/Bio. The Tox Section sponsoredDr. Daniele Piomelli from the University of California at Irvine tospeak as the Annual Lecturer focusing on The EndocannabinoidSignaling System.

As usual the Open Forum hosted by Chip Walls was a bighit after seating and desert rooms got combined.

The Toxicology Section Business Meeting was run by theChair, Peter Stout, and Secretary, Jeri Ropero-Miller. The Chair-man’s report by Dr. Stout urged members to strive to be currentand active AAFS members by seeking promotions and gettinginvolved; to read and discuss the newly released National Acad-emy of Sciences (NAS) report entitled “Strengthening ForensicScience in the United States: A Path Forward”. Dr. Stout up-dated members on judicial news surrounding the Crawford andMeledez-Diaz court cases that may affect those serving as ExpertWitnesses. Other Section news included a host of Chair reportsfrom each of the standing committees and liaison organizationreports, revisions and approval to the Section’s Policy and Proce-dures. Tox Section Abstracts from the last 10 years are nowavailable on CDs by contacting Kathy Reynolds of the Academyoffice ( KReynolds@aafs.org).

Newly elected officers for 2010 include: Chair- Jeri Ropero-Miller Secretary- Kenneth Ferslew Program Chair- Phil Kemp Workshop Chair- Ruth Winecker

Tox Section Awards presented in February include:Dr. Barry Levine was presented the Alexander O. Gettler AwardDr. Timothy Rohrig was presented the Rolla N. Harger AwardTeresa Gray was given the June K. Jones Award

If you are not a member of AAFS Toxicology Section wewelcome you to join. And if you are a member and need to updateyour membership to Fellow see one of the Section Officers.

TO X I C O L O G Y - B I T S & P I E C E SSection Editor, J. Robert Zettl, MPA

ToxTalk

In June of 2008 a long stand-ing member of SOFT, Robert WayneWall passed away. He is survived byhis wife Anne C. Wall and his childrenRobert, Gordon and Rachael. Wayne,as he was known to his friends andfamily, obtained his BS in Biologyfrom Christopher Newport Universityand his MS in Biology from WesternKentucky University. He was a mem-ber of Phi Beta Kappa Society andAAFS. He served in the United StatesArmy from 1970 to 1973. As a civil-ian, he worked at the 10th Medical USArmy Laboratory in Landstuhl, Ger-many in the Virology Section of thelaboratory followed by a position in theToxicology Section. In 1985 Waynestarted working at the U.S. Army Fo-rensic Toxicology Drug Testing Labo-ratory spending a few years in theQuality Control Section before becom-ing a Laboratory Certifying Scientistand Expert Witness for Military sepa-ration boards and court proceedings.Wayne was always eager to share hisknowledge with new employees andwas often consulted regarding drugcases. He routinely volunteered to leadbriefings and lab tours and was just aseager to educate the visitor to the lab ashe was the new employee. His knowl-edge, positive attitude, humor, andguidance will be sorely missed.

Page 27

TO X I C O L O G Y - B I T S & P I E C E S (CO N T I N U E D )A . A . F. S . / S . O . F. T. J O I N T D R U G S & D R I V I N G C O M M I T T E E

Submitted by Jennifer Limoges

The AAFS/SOFT Drugs & Driv-ing Committee met during the AmericanAcademy of Forensic Sciences annualmeeting in Denver, Colorado on Wednes-day, February 18, 2009. The website con-tinues to be the main focus of the commit-tee, along with maintaining the specialsessions and workshops. Once the websiteproject is completed, the committee willreorganize around new goals.

Workplace Testing is a spe-cialty area of forensic toxicology andin such has a complex set of elementsunique to the specimen selection andanalytical techniques necessary for asuccessful testing outcome. Work-place testing is performed primarily asa deterrent to drug abuse and in suchthe emphasis is placed on the reliabil-ity of the drug testing both in accuracyand validity of the analysis but withthe use and application of the reportedresults in the workplace arena. Promi-nent practicing forensic toxicologistscover the factors in the interpretationof the drug test results including drugscreening and confirmatory method-ologies, the cutoff concentrations, theadministrative or legally mandatedrules, the pharmacology and metabo-lism of drugs, the limitations of typeof specimen to predict drug use or im-pairment. Individual chapters are in-cluded for the five drug classes mostoften included in the workplace drug-testing panel: amphetamines, cannabi-noids, cocaine opiates and phen-cycline. New topics presented in the2nd edition include quality assurance,laboratory accreditation and regula-tion. In addition there are comprehen-

F O N D F A R E W E L LSubmitted by Cathy Jolin

DUID Workshop” will be hosted by AshrafMozayani in Houston, TX.

Congratulations to Chip Walls whowill be receiving the honorary designationof “DRE Ambassador” at the annual DREconference this year. The designation hon-ors an individual who has contributed sig-nificantly to the DRE program, but is not acertified DRE.

Thanks to Michelle Spirk for an-other excellent DUID Special Session atthe AAFS meeting. Amy Cochems will becoordinating the session at the SOFT 2009meeting. The committee will also be sub-mitting a workshop proposal for SOFT2009, coordinated by Michelle Spirk andAnn Marie Gordon.

Another offering of the joint Con-tinuing Education Committee “Interpretive

M E M B E R N E W S

H A N D B O O K O F W O R K P L A C E D R U G T E S T I N G

S E C O N D E D I T I O N

Edited by Jeri D. Ropero-Miller, PhD. And Bruce A. Goldberger, PhD

sive chapters on the subject of alter-native matrices including discussionson testing of hair, oral fluid andsweat. This 2nd Edition of WorkplaceDrug Testing provides a comprehen-sive concise resource that providesinformation on the complex elementsof workplace drug testing for boththe practitioner and the public.

Published by AACCPress @ 485pgs.

Book Review Submitted by Vickie W.Watts, Co-Editor of ToxTalk

Future S.O.F.T. Meeting Info

2009: Oklahoma City, OK………Oct. 18-23, 2009…………..Phil Kemp, Dennis McKinney

2010: Richmond, VA……………Oct. 18-22, 2010….…..Michelle Peace, Lisa Tarnai Moak

2011: San Francisco, CA………...Aug. 29-Sep. 2, 2011………….………….Nikolas Lemos

2012: Boston, MA……………….June 30-July 6, 2012….……….……...…Michael Wagner

2013: Orlando, FL……………….Oct. 26-Nov.3, 2013 ……….…….Bruce Goldberger

Committee Committee Chair

Nominating…………………………Christine Moore, Ph.D., DABCCMembership……………………..….Sarah Kerrigan, Ph.D.Strategic Planning…………………..Marc LeBeau, Ph.D.Budget, Finance, and Audit………...Robert Turk, Ph.D., DABFTToxTalk Co-Editors………....……...Yale Caplan, Ph.D., DABFT

Vickie Watts, M.S.ByLaws……………………...……..Yale Caplan, Ph.D., DABFTPublications (JAT Special Issue) ….Jennifer Limoges, M.S., DABCAwards...…………………………...Philip Kemp, Ph.D., DABFTDrugs & Driving…………...………Jennifer Limoges, M.S., DABCMeeting Resource…………...……..Bradford Hepler, Ph.D., DABFTMeeting Guidelines ………………..Bradford Hepler, Ph.D., DABFTPolicy and Procedure…………...….William Anderson, Ph.D.SOFT Internet Web-Site……...……Bruce Goldberger, Ph.D., DABFTContinuing Education………...……Ann Marie Gordon, M.S.Web Based Continuing Ed………...Peter Stout, Ph.D., DABFTLaboratory Guidelines…...………...W. Lee Hearn, Ph,D.Ethics………………………...…….Aaron Jacobs, Ph.D.Drug Facilitated Rape &

Sexual Assault………...………..Marc LeBeau, Ph.D.MS/MS Guidelines………………...Dennis Crouch, M.S.

February 1 for March Issue

May 1 for June Issue

August 1 for September Issue

November 1 for December Issue

Phil Kemp, Co-Hostpkemp@arlok.com

Dennis McKinney, Co-Hostdmckin321@aol.com

Laurel Farrell, Treasurerljfarrellco@msn.com

John Soper, Workshop Chairjwsoper@integrity.com

Jesse Kemp, Workshop Co-Chairjkemp@arlok.com

David von Minden,Scientific Program Chairdvonminden@uco.edu

Robert Bost, Student Liaisonrbost@uco.edu

The Harris County MedicalExaminer Office - Toxicology Labo-ratory is hosting a SOFT DUIDWorkshop in Houston, Texas onMay 12-13, 2009. A brochure andregistration form can be downloadedat www.soft-tox.org.

Please contact Dr. AshrafMozayani for further information(Ashraf.Mozayani@meo.hctx.net).Registration deadline is March 31,2009.

2 0 0 8 S . O . F. T. C O M M I T T E E C H A I R S

ToxTalk Deadlines for Contributions

Scientific abstract papersfor poster and (15 minute) plat-form presentations have a submis-sion deadline of July 7, 2009. En-closed with this ToxTalk mailingare complete instructions and de-tails needed to submit papers. In-structions can also be downloadedat the SOFT 2009 websitewww.soft2009.org). Questionsand submissions are to be made toSOFT2009@uco.edu.

Tom Kupiec, Events &Scientific Program Comm.tkupiec@arlok.com

Jeri Ropero-Miller,Exhibitor Liaisonjerimiller@rti.org

Peter Stout,Exhibitor Liaisonpstout@rti.org

Bruce Goldberger,SOFT Webmasterbruce.goldberger@ufl.edu

Jared Cooper, SOFT 2009,Website Designerjcooper@rti.org

SOFT 2009 Planning Committee

S.O.F.T. Administrative OfficeOne Macdonald Center1 N. Macdonald St., Suite 15Mesa, AZ 85201

Phone: 888-866-SOFT (7638)Fax: 480-839-9106E-mail: ToxTalk@soft-tox.org

Society of ForensicToxico logists , Inc.

ToxTalk is the official publication of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists, Inc., mailed quar-terly (bulk mail) to its members. It is each member’s responsibility to report changes ofaddress to the SOFT Administrative Office. Non-members may receive ToxTalk for $15 percalendar year. Checks payable to SOFT may be mailed to the SOFT Administrative Office.To submit articles or address ToxTalk issues please email to ToxTalk@soft-tox.org.

The Renaissance Hotel is ready to begin acceptingreservations. The on-line link is:

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/OKCBR?groupCode=socsoca&app=resvlink&fromDate=10/16/09

&toDate=10/24/09

The enclosed 2009 Direc-tory has been prepared for the ex-clusive, personal use of SOFTmembers. The contents were ob-tained from individual 2009 duespayment forms and the on-line up-dates of contact information as ofFebruary 28, 2009.

It is the responsibility ofeach member to keep his/her con-tact information current. Pleasenotify the SOFT Office as correc-tions are needed.

2 0 0 9 D I R E C T O R YD U I D W O R K S H O P C A L L F O R P A P E R S