The majority of narcotic substances is saved in the hair's stem in small but educible doses. It provides an opportunity to make a diagnostic even the single use of some material in small dose that was held few months shy of analysis. The method of detection of the narcotic element by hairs is the most reliable and widely spread in the Europe and USA. The analysis of drugs by hairs is used by the majority of hospitals, companies and organizations for patients and employees' control.
The advantages of the method of drugs' analyses by hairs are:
The hairs' analysis gives the opportunity to reconstruct the chronology of narcotic substances' using. The probes of hairs can be taken many months ago after drugs' using and determinate with high veracity in what month, what element and what dose was used.
The important moment is the opportunity to take probes even if the person is dead that is widely used in criminal investigations.
The biological base of determination of the narcotic substances by hairs.
Accumulation of narcotic substances in the hairs.
The narcotic element after penetration into the body is internalized and entered into the blood system. Every hair have its own system of blood's circulation and substances that were in blood, including drugs, are accumulated in it.Â
The determination of the time of narcotic substances' use by the hairs' growth.
The hair grows approximately with the speed from 1 to 1.2 cm a month and works as specific recording tape that records all substances that the person used. If we take the hair of 3 cm long and cut it into tree equal pieces so the piece that is the closest to the root will tell us about the element that the person used for the last month. The segment tells about substances that entered to the body for the month before the last. The third segment tells about substances that were used three months ago. This method used for making the picture of narcotic substances' using for a long period of time. If we take these three months for a single period then can determinate if the person used the narcotic substances for the last three years.
The determination of the maximum period in which it's possible to analyze the narcotic substances' using depends on the hairs' long. It's can be used the probes of hairs (from 15-20 to 50-100 hairs) from the head and other parts of body (for example, from armpit) but the head's hairs gives the most exact results because hairs from other parts of body grow with the different speed and don't give the adequate information of the period when the narcotic substances were used but the fact of its using is proved.Â
The rules of hairs' selection for chemico-toxicological research for narcotic substances and psychoactive substances.
The hairs are selected separately from the head in the form of lock in the quantity not less than 100 hairs that are cut by scissors as closer as possible to the skin. If it's necessary the hairs can be taken from other hairy parts of body. The every selected hair is put into the individual envelope. Theenvelopesshouldbestickdown.
The procedure of analyze to drugs' substances.
The probe has its number. The probes of hairs in test tube are worked up by the special organic solvent that dissolves the protein stem of hair and this process releases the substances that it has.Â
This fluid is analyzed on the modern gas chromatograph that has the unprecedented sensibility of finding out of the substances in the smallest doses.Â
The list of substances that can be determinate by the analyze of hairs by the method of gas chromatograph: amphetamine, cocaine, crystal meth, methcathinone, nicotine, heroin, Methadone, morphine, cannabinoids. The list of identifiable substances is not finished. The works of determination of new prohibited substances are held.Â
Therefore, today this type of analyze of drugs is the most sensitive and selective in comparable with other methods of research. The majority of existing modern methods on drugs' analyzes can only determinate the group of substances, for example, opiates. They can't differentiate the using of heroin from codeine that many febrifuge and anti-tussive medications have. This method gives the opportunity to identify the every substance of the group, not only a group at whole.
