Identificación de biomarcadores que descarten la presencia de cocaína como droga de abuso

Cocaine is an alkaloid extracted from the leaves of t he shrub Erythroxylum coca , which is found in several countries, including the Colombia n territory. The use of the alkaloid has had a great environmental and socioeconomic impact, as its traffic as hallucinogenic drug is considered illegal. However, many p eople traditionally consume Erythroxylum coca leaves due to its anesthetic, digestive properties and in order to improve the symptoms of altitude sickness, among other properties. The purpose of this research consisted in identify biomarkers that can diffe rentiate between the consumption of the pure cocaine as hallucinogenic drug and the consumption of the Erythroxylum coca leaf . The interest arose in order to determine whether a person involved in a criminal process with a cocaine in h is body , should recei ve a punitive sanction if it is consumer of hallucinogens, as opposed who consumers the coca leaf that do not have any sanctions under Colombian criminal law