This paper examines the relationship of the price and purity of cocaine to emergency room visits and deaths associated with cocaine use and to cocaine use among arrestees. A model is developed for the trend in cocaine prices at the retail level during the period January 1986 to December 1991. This trend is then compared to information on emergency room visits, medical examiner reports, and the percentage of arrestees testing positive for cocaine use over the same period. The principal conclusion is that there is a significant negative relationship between the estimated street price of cocaine and the level of related medical emergencies and deaths and the number of arrestees who test positive for cocaine.

Cocaine↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Foreign compound metabolism studies with human liver obtained as surgical waste. Relation to donor characteristics and effects of tissue storage.

An investigation has been conducted on the foreign compound-metabolizing activity of human liver collected fresh from surgery or at autopsy from cadavers 3 to 18 hr old, and the effects of low temperature storage on the foreign compound-metabolizing activity of fresh human liver. The enzyme activities studied were microsomal cytochrome P-450 content, biphenyl 4-hydroxylation, benzo-(a)pyrene metabolism, halothane reduction, and 4-hydroxybiphenyl UDP-glucuronosyl transferase, as well as cytosolic thiopurine methyltransferase, thermostable (TS) phenolsulfotransferase, thermolabile (TL) phenolsulfotransferase, and 5-fluorouracil dehydrogenase. Cadaver liver was a poor source of material for metabolism studies with the majority of the enzymes investigated. There was an 84% decrease in the yield of microsomal protein, a 64% decrease in cytochrome P-450 content per mg of microsomal protein, and a 36% decrease in the biphenyl 4-hydroxylase specific activity in human cadaver liver that was a few hours old. UDP-glucuronosyl transferase showed a 70% decrease, TS phenolsulfotransferase a 84% decrease, TL phenolsulfotransferase a 97% decrease, and thiopurine methyltransferase no significant change in specific activity. The loss of activity for many of these enzymes could be simulated by keeping fresh human liver at the temperature of the body after death. Surgical waste provided a good source of fresh, histologically normal, human liver for metabolism studies. Microsomal cytochrome P-450 content showed a significant increase with the age of the liver donor. Metabolism of benzo(a)pyrene to 3-hydroxybenzo(a)pyrene and benzo(a)pyrene-7,8- and -9,10-diols showed up to 136% higher rates in fresh liver microsomes from female donors.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Age Factors↗