The Evolution Toward Designer Benzodiazepines in Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault Cases.

This article focuses on the toxicological challenges and analytical approaches related to benzodiazepines (BZDs) and designer benzodiazepines (DBZDs) in drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) cases. BZDs are commonly implicated in DFSA due to their potency, rapid onset, oral availability, and short half-life, while DBZDs—novel psychoactive substances structurally similar to BZDs but often uncontrolled—pose additional detection and interpretation difficulties because of their diversity, higher potency, and limited pharmacological data. The review details the pharmacokinetics, metabolism, and forensic detection methods of both BZDs and DBZDs in biological matrices such as blood, urine, and hair, emphasizing the need for highly sensitive mass spectrometry techniques due to low drug concentrations and delayed reporting by victims. It also highlights the importance of comprehensive case information and advanced analytical strategies, including untargeted high-resolution mass spectrometry and the development of reference standards, to improve detection and interpretation in DFSA investigations.