Routine screening techniques are employed by forensic drug chemistry labs for identifying controlled substances in seized samples and determining the samples that need to be further analyzed using confirmatory techniques. These screening techniques commonly include quick colorimetric tests, melting point analysis, and UV or fluorescence spectrometry, all of which falls under Category C in SWGDRUG’s categorization scheme. Although these techniques are rapid, it is often required to employ multiple screening tests to cover a broad range of drugs. These techniques also have the lowest potential discriminating power according to SWGDRUG. In order to increase laboratory efficiency and turnaround time, screening techniques that have higher potential discriminating power are desirable. One such technique is Direct Analysis in Real Time - Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS), which has been shown to be capable of accurately screening controlled substances in seconds per sample. Although effective, an area that has been lacking for DART-MS analyses is the availability of DART-MS libraries and a program that can interpret data and search libraries.<br/> <br/>Currently, the only available DART library for controlled substances and drugs of abuse is the library offered by NIST; however, this library was created using a high-end mass spectrometry platform in 2013 and is not up-to-date with respect to many new designer drugs and other substances seen in recent years. Therefore we have developed a reverse library search program that enables the creation and search of DART-MS databases on a more cost-effective platform. A database consisting of approximately 200 substances, which includes opioids, cannabinoids, stimulants, benzodiazepines, novel psychoactive compounds, have been created using an in-source CID approach where a minimum of 2 spectra and a maximum of 4 spectra were acquired for each compound. A continual effort is being made to expand this database to include known and emerging designer drugs. Seized materials may be quickly analyzed in either their native state or in a pretreated form by DART and the data is automatically interpreted by the program. The end result is a simple display of the identified substances along with the spectral comparisons and match scores. The database development process and program potential for screening seized drug materials will be discussed.<br/>

Development of DART-MS libraries and a reverse library search program for on-site or laboratory screening of seized drugs

255th National Meeting (2018)

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