Identification of GHB and morphine in hair in a case of drug-facilitated sexual assault

The authors present the case of a 24-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted after administration of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and morphine. She had been living in an international college for foreign students for about 1 year and often complained of a general unhealthy feeling in the morning. At the end of the college period she returned to Italy and received at home some video clips shot by a mobile phone camera. In these videos she was having sex with a boy she met when she was studying abroad. Toxicological analysis of her hair was done: the hair was 20-cm long. A 2/3-cm segmentation of all the length of the hair was performed. Morphine and GHB were detected in hair segments related to the period of time she was abroad. The analyses of hair segments were performed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and the concentration of morphine and GHB were calculated. A higher value of GHB was found in the period associated with the possible criminal activity and was also associated with the presence of morphine in the same period.