Medical-legal aspects of drug-facilitated crime

Abstract

Drug-facilitated crime is not a recent phenomenon and crimes such as robbery, homicide, rape and sexual violence associated with substance consumption have already been reported. The prevalence and class of drugs vary worldwide, but these data are still difficult to measure given the victim's hesitation to contact the competent police authorities or, moreover, due to the extent of time between the fact, the complaint, the collection of biological specimens and their analysis. Unlike in the rest of the world, drug-facilitated crimes in Brazil involve mainly theft and the main victims are men. More than 100 substances are known to be used for this purpose, the main ones being ethanol, benzodiazepines, gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and ketamine. Some characteristics of these drugs include the production of certain nonspecific symptoms in the victims (lowered inhibition, sedation / hypnosis, mental confusion, anterograde amnesia), besides being easy to obtain, difficult to detect analytically, allow discreet administration and rapid onset of effects. Given the significance of the crimes related these substances, action is required. Investment in research and quality epidemiological surveys that result in reliable information are urgent.