title: Profiles of urine samples from participants at rave party in Taiwan: prevalence of ketamine and MDMA abuse.
abstract: Drug abuse patterns are different due to cultural, social and geographical differences. Methamphetamine (MA) is the most important drug of abuse in Taiwan followed by opiates. Recently, there has been an increase of ketamine and MDMA abuse in disco dancing clubs. Here, we report the patterns of drug abuse by the participants in a metropolitan city disco-dancing club and the general public in Taiwan. The positive rates of common drugs of abuse detected in samples collected from participants in a dancing club were as follows: MDMA, 75.7%; ketamine, 47.0%; MA, 41.6%; opiates, 0%. Marijuana and cocaine were detected at much lower rates (3.4 and 4.7%, respectively). Ketamine and one of the amphetamines were detected together in 42.9% of the samples. The positive rates in samples collected from police detainees suspected of drug abuse in the general public were as follows: MA, 76.0%; OPA, 37.0%; MDMA, 6.0%; ketamine, 2.0%.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Technology, Tzu Chi University, 701 Section 3, Chung Yan Road, Hualien 970, Taiwan. ahai@mail.tcu.edu.tw
authors.forename: Ahai Chang
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Lua
authors.forename: Huei Ru
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Yong Te
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.forename: An Ren
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Pei Chi
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Yeh
mesh_terms: D000662:Amphetamines / Q000097:blood; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D006801:Humans; D007649:Ketamine / Q000652:urine*; D018817:N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine / Q000652:urine*; D015995:Prevalence; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000652:urine; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population
chemical_list: D000662:Amphetamines; D007649:Ketamine; D018817:N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine