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Diazepam: The Detection Of A Date Rape Drug

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Abstract

The aim of this research was to determine if diazepam can be detected by Gas Chromatography-Mass 1 1 Spectrometry (GC-MS), H-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance ( H-NMR), Infrared and Raman Spectroscopy. 1 The results of the H-NMR, infrared and Raman spectroscopy suggest that these techniques are more suited for preliminary identification instead of confirmatory identification due to the signal of diazepam appearing to be over-powered by the tablet's fillers. The GC-MS results show that it was possible to detect a pure diazepam tablet which allowed for the estimation for the limit of detection to be 0.001 mg/mL and the limit of quantification to be 0.02 mg/mL. This meant that if a 2 mg diazepam or Valium tablet were to be used in a drug facilitated sexual assault or rape, that the amount of diazepam that could be recovered from the surface of a mobile phone, inside the pocket of a pair of jeans, or inside the wallet, would be in great enough quantity to be detected. This research has shown that should a perpetrator leave a trace of diazepam, it would be forensically possible to link a suspect to the spiking, which could increase the prosecution and conviction rate of rape.

Acceptance Date Sep 3, 2021
Publication Date Sep 3, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal The Student Journal of Natural Sciences
Print ISSN 2632-2803
DOI https://doi.org/10.21252/h7jb-bb18
Keywords diazepam, rape, facilitated sexual assault, surface detection, Gas Chromatography, 1 – Mass Spectrometry, H-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Infrared, Raman spectroscopy
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.21252/h7jb-bb18

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