Designer drugs that attempt to mimic the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are often sprayed onto herbs and marketed as herbal incense, or �Spice.� In our study, these synthetic cannabinoids were extracted from several herbal products with methanol and then filtered with paper filter, followed by identification with Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS). GC/MS analysis was done with an optimized separation method and a 5% polysilarylene � 95% polydimethylsiloxane column. Cannabinoids were identified using a SWGDRUG mass spectral library. Subsequently, cannabinoids found on these spice products were quantified using GC/ECD (Gas Chromatography/Electron Capture Detector) with a (5%-phenyl)-methylpolysiloxane column using external standard calibration. GC/ECD was used to quantify cannabinoids because of its low limit of detection, especially for halogenated cannabinoids such as AM-2201, which was detected at 0.5 ng, dramatically reducing the sample size for quantification. The GC-MS and GC-ECD methods will help forensic labs to reduce evidence backlog.

Identification and quantification of synthetic cannabinoids using gas chromatography

248th National Meeting (2014)

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