Diazepam: The Detection Of A Date Rape Drug

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.

Citation

(2021). Diazepam: The Detection Of A Date Rape Drug. https://doi.org/10.21252/h7jb-bb18

• Acceptance Date: Sep 3, 2021
• Publication Date: Sep 3, 2021
• 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