Synthetic cathinones, commonly called �bath salts�, have recently become popular substances of abuse around the world.  While exhibiting stimulating effects, they are harmful and illegal in most countries.  Police forces do not have a widely adopted method of identifying bath salts in the field.  Raman Spectroscopy offers rapid and selective detection in field portable platform.  This offers an attractive advantage over reference methods such as LC-MS and GC-MS.  We will be presenting data showing how bath salts can be identified in trace-levels on common substrates found in the field.  Also, using seized samples from law enforcement, data will be presented that shows if different cathinone derivatives can be identified in one sample.

Identifying trace-levels of synthetic cathinones using Raman spectroscopy

247th National Meeting (2014)

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