The Identification of Drug Abuse

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last decades, interest in the field of forensic toxicology has continually increased and assumed a leading role, becoming one of the reference sciences for the elucidation of events of judicial importance. The need to reconcile analytical problems (e.g., relating to the qualitative/quantitative analysis of substances of abuse in complex biological matrices) with judicial requirements (i.e., providing data that can be used as documentary evidence in proceedings) makes the discipline unique among all "analytical" sciences. Thus, the availability of validated procedures, the constant monitoring of analytical performance through quality assurance protocols, the availability of certified “in matrix” standards, and the analytical problems underlying the analysis of new psychoactive substances in blood and other biological fluids represent the challenges of modern forensic toxicology. The correct interpretation of analytical data, especially to elucidate the extent of impairment induced by a certain substance, and "old" issues related to the correct interpretation of post-mortem data (given the impossibility of translating the therapeutic ranges defined “in vivo”) represent further areas of research and debate among scientists. Finally, the possibility of interacting with other disciplines (such as proteomics and social sciences) allows for extending the concept of analytical data acquisition/interpretation beyond the classical limits of forensic toxicology (for example, considering the influence of gender when interpreting the effect of a substance).

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue of Toxics on forensic toxicology, which will be focused on problems related to data acquisition/interpretation, with particular emphasis on post-mortem data, new psychoactive substances, strategies for an appropriate impairment judgment, and application of proteomics to forensic toxicology. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are particularly welcomed.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Maria Pieri
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.