Drug abuse of Finnish male prisoners in 1995.

The purpose of the present research was to estimate the extent and variety of abuse of illegal drugs, use and misuse of hypnotics and sedatives and anabolic steroids in the Finnish prison population. The study was undertaken during October-November 1995 at four prisons, three of which were closed institutions and one an open prison; one of the three closed institutions was a juvenile prison. There was a total of 707 inmates in the prisons selected for the study. Questionnaires were given personally to all prisoners in the open prison and in the young prisoners' division in the juvenile prison, but in two large central prisons only some divisions were selected for the study. The questionnaires were completed by 354 prisoners; 75 prisoners refused to respond. A total of 27.7% of subjects reported taking illegal drugs while in their current prison and 70.1% had sometimes used them. Of those who were drug-free before their first imprisonment, 21.7% began using drugs in prison. At present hypnotics and sedatives were reported as in use by 41.8% of subjects, one-third as prescribed drugs and about 10% illicitly. A total of 3.7% of subjects reported taking anabolic steroids in the current prison. Cannabis and amphetamine were the most common illegal drugs reported. Intravenous drug use was reported by 19.2% of the respondents at some point in their lives, and 10.7% of prisoners had injected drugs in their current prison. Use of illegal drugs and misuse of drugs were significantly higher among young prisoners (< or = 25 years of age).

Comparison of RapiTest with Emit d.a.u. and GC-MS for the analysis of drugs in urine.

Results obtained with RapiTest THC (One Step delta 9-Tetrahydrocannabinol Test), RapiTest MOP (One Step Morphine Test), RapiTest MET (One Step Methamphetamine Test), and RapiTest COC (One Step Cocaine Test) were compared with the results obtained with Emit d.a.u. and with gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) methods. In all, 81 urine samples taken from specimens submitted for routine analysis in the Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology were analyzed. Samples were screened with Emit, reanalyzed by RapiTests, and quantitated using GC-MS methods. Both positive and negative urine samples were tested. The results obtained with RapiTests correlated well with the Emit d.a.u. and GC-MS data when operating above the cutoff concentrations specified for these methods. RapiTest MOP was found to have crossreactivity with codeine and ethylmorphine, and RapiTest MET crossreacted with amphetamine.