Volume 2 • Issue 3 • 1000120 Abnorm Behav Psychol, an open access journal ISSN: 2472-0496 Open Access Research Article Matua et al., Abnorm Behav Psychol 2016, 2:3 DOI: 10.4172/2472-0496.1000120 Abnormal and Behavioural Psychology A b n o r m a l a n d B e h a vi o u r a l P s y c h o l o g y ISSN: 2472-0496 Keywords: Albania; Drugged driving; Toxicological investigation Introduction Te efects of alcohol consumption on safety behavior of drivers have been reported in diferent studies [1-4]. But, research had shown that illicit drugs and psychoactive medicinal drugs may increase the risk of trafc accidents [5-11]. Driving under the infuence is considered as one of the main causes of road crashes, it is a continuous concern for road safety. Te most important research projects carried out in the EU aimed to quantify the size of the drink- and drug driving problem in Europe; it was shown that the injured or killed drivers, the most commonly consumed substance was alcohol alone, followed by alcohol combined with other substances [12,13]. Similar investigation took place in diferent European countries and a number of studies on drink and drug driving were published [14-20]. Regarding Albania, alcohol investigations are performed in crashed drivers [21,22] but it is never investigated about the use of drugs of abuse among drivers involved in road crashes. According to Republic of Albania`s law on Road Trafc Safety (2011 amendment), it is prohibited driving afer drinking or consuming illicit drugs and psychoactive substances. Te sanctions for driving in these conditions include monetary fnes, detention and suspension of the driving license. In each road accident, if there are injuries or medical assistance is needed, the analyses of blood alcohol concentrations are required from the police ofcers [23]. Te Laboratory of Forensic Toxicology of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tirana is the only one, authorized to perform the toxicological investigation of trafc accidents that happen all over the country (population 3.190.089). Te police ofcers usually request blood sampling of injured drivers or legal autopsy of deceased drivers, the blood samples are analyzed only for alcohol. Te collection of urine is not a standard practice. Tis study aimed to investigate the presence of illegal drugs and psychoactive medicinal drugs among the crashed drivers in our country. Materials and Methods We considered 82 blood samples of crashed drivers from all country (selection criteria were applied), from January to December 2012, which were analyzed for both alcohol and drugs. Tese cases represented only a portion of total accidents happened in that period (153 in total) which fulfll the selection criteria as following: a. Drivers injured or killed in trafc accidents. b. Time interval between the accident and sampling of less than 1 hour. c. Sufcient blood available, to perform alcohol and drug analyses. d. Tere were available data regarding: age of the person involved in accident, time of accident happened and time of blood sampling. Te rest of the blood samples from drivers involved in road accidents during that period, were analyzed for ethanol alone. Blood sampling, was done shortly afer the accident, venous blood was taken by a physician or nurse in the presence of police ofcer, using 5cc sterile tubes containing anticoagulants. In fatal cases, heart blood samples were taken at autopsy, using *Corresponding author: Vyshka G, Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine, Dibra Str. No.371, Tirana, Albania, Tel: +355 69 7566130; E-mail: gvyshka@gmail.com Received June 21, 2016; Accepted July 23, 2016; Published August 02, 2016 Citation: Matua L, Xhemali B, Koçibelli M, Jucja B, Vyshka G (2016) Illicit Drugs among Crashed Drivers, A First Toxicological Investigation in Albania. Abnorm Behav Psychol 2: 120. doi: 10.4172/2472-0496.1000120 Copyright: © 2016 Matua L, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Illicit Drugs among Crashed Drivers, A First Toxicological Investigation in Albania Linda Matua 1,2 , Bledar Xhemali 1 , Mirnela Koçibelli 1 , Besnik Jucja 2 and Gentian Vyshka 3 * 1 Institute of Forensic Medicine, Tirana, Albania 2 Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Medicine, Tirana, Albania 3 Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine, Tirana, Albania Abstract This study aims to investigate the presence of drugs in this group of drivers who already had a crash (injured or killed drivers). By law, the prosecutor is the authority who requests the toxicological examination specifying the type of analysis that will be performed, usually only alcohol test is required. There has been some investigation regarding the infuence of alcohol in traffc crashes in Albania (3,190,089 inhabitants), but never a research regarding the use of illicit and medicinal drugs in drivers in our country. Alcohol was analyzed in blood by head-space gas- chromatography. Blood samples were also screened for psychoactive substances (opiates, cocaine metabolites, cannabis, amphetamines, methamphetamines, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants, barbiturates) by immunological methods. Their presence was confrmed by gas-chromatography. Overall, 82 car drivers were included in the study. Drivers involved in accidents were more frequently men 98.8% (n=81). 46 drivers (56.1%) had a positive blood alcohol concentration at the time of the crash, but only 23 (28%) had toxic concentrations exceeding 1.2 g/l. In total, 15.9% were positive for illicit drugs and medicinal drugs. This study revealed that beside alcohol, psychoactive substances were present in Albanian crashed drivers, too.