The rampant usage of �legal pot� or herbal consumer products that are intentionally doped with synthetic cannabinoids such as JWH-018 caused increased medical incidents and triggered the recent ban of five compounds by the Drug Enforcement Administration. A concern is that these compounds are being legally sold. It becomes a great challenge for law enforcement agencies to quickly detect these synthetic compounds, banned or not, in herbal products. In our research, Direct Analysis at Real Time (DART) coupled with Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry were used to identify synthetic cannabinoid powder and within herbal products with minimum sample preparation and ultra-fast speed. The findings were confirmed using H1-NMR, as well as High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The combination of DART-MS, NMR and HPLC can positively detect, identify and quantify the presence of synthetic cannabinoids in consumer products within hours, which will dramatically speed up harm-reduction efforts and law enforcement actions.

Rapid detection of synthetic cannabinoids in consumer products through DART-MS, NMR and HPLC

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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