A2 (N-benzylpiperazine) a new drug of abuse in Sweden.
N-Benzylpiperazine was tested in the beginning of the 1970s as a possible antidepressant drug. However, in both animal and human studies, it was shown to possess amphetamine-like properties, and any further studies were stopped. In a forensic autopsy case in 1999, we found a substance so far unknown to us in the chromatogram of our method used for amphetamines. We could swiftly identify this compound as N-benzylpiperazine because of information given to us by a newly formed network comprising, among others, customs and the police. Since then, we have found N-benzylpiperazine in several cases, among them 11 cases from a number of prisons.
National Board of Forensic Medicine, Department of Forensic Chemistry, University Hospital, Linköping, Sweden. maria.wikstrom@rmv.se
Maria
M
Wikström
Per
P
Holmgren
Johan
J
Ahlner
D000328:Adult; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010879:Piperazines / Q000032:analysis*; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods*; D013548:Sweden
C461488:N-benzylpiperazine; D010879:Piperazines