Test Diagnostici per la Verifica dell’assunzione di Sostanze Stupefacenti nei Luoghi di Lavoro

The Italian Legislative Decree 81/08 for health and safety protection at the workplaces contains an explicit mention to the need for the Occupational Physician Responsible (OPR) to integrate the Sanitary Surveillance with tests “aimed to verify the absence of alcohol dependence and drug assumption conditions” (article 41, comma 4). Such disposition highlights the crucial role played by the OPR in order to ensure the workers’ and others’ safety and, as a consequence, requires a deep knowledge of the forensic-medicine principles. To such purpose, the present paper is aimed to discuss in details the characteristics of the analytical procedures used for opiates, cocaine, cannabis and amfetamine consumption ascertainment, focusing on sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of analytical methods. Moreover the basics of drug metabolization/excretion will be discussed, as well as the possible adulterations of the biological samples and also the more appropriated analysis to be required for a correct data interpretation.