Purification of cocaine for the training of drug detection dogs by the Bahia Military Police

Abstract

Advance in illicit drug use is one of the main public health problems in the world since the number of users is increasing, mainly in developing countries. Brazil is the largest consumer market for cocaine in South America. Various adulterants and diluents are added to the drug to increase its final volume. Due to their strong olfactory ability, drug detection dogs are used to detect narcotics, however, their training should start with the purest possible cocaine. Thus, this work aimed to develop a methodology for obtaining cocaine with a purity level above 90%. Initially, two methodologies for purification of cocaine samples seized by the military police of Bahia (PM-BA) in the city of Vitória da Conquista-Ba were tested. After purifying the samples using the initially proposed methodologies, the results were analyzed by HPLC-DAD and GC-MS and indicated a maximum purity of 63.54%, much lower than desired. Aiming at increasing the purity of the substance of interest, two complementary methods of purification, recrystallization and classical column chromatography were developed, and the chromatographic process presented a final product with high purity content (98.53 ± 0.12%). Thus, the purification processes developed in this work constitute a viable and effective alternative for supplying samples of cocaine with high purity content to the military police of Bahia, aiming at training sniffer dogs.

Keywords

cocaine purification
sniffer dogs
illicit drugs
HPLC
GC-MS
purificação de cocaína
cães farejadores
drogas ilícitas
HPLC
CG-EM

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