STUDIES OF THE COMPOSITION OF SMOKING MIXTURES CONTAINING SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS

Currently, in many countries, including Russia, there is an alarming increase in the consumption of potentially dangerous smoking mixtures containing synthetic cannabinoids (SM-SC). Against the background of a persistent trend of constant change («updates») it is very important to monitor their component composition in order to assess the potential risk of harm to the health of potential consumers and to take adeguate therapeutic measures in the event of drug cases, as well as to establish the source of production and the chain of their illegal distribution. The purpose of the work: a scientific review of publications with the results of component composition studies and the definition of the SM-SC analysis algorithm. An overview of the results of the SM-SC studies was presented. Information on the composition of SM-SC, procedures of sample preparation, methods of identification and determination of the main components and impurities, obtaining and processing chromatographic data were provided. The main components of the mixtures are the matrix, the physiologically active substance and various impurities. The modern classification of SC in accordance with their chemical structure was presented.Recommendations on the selection of profile impurities with identification significance were given. For the determination of volatile impurities, in some cases, it is effective to pre-vapor-phase separation from the matrix, capture from the gas phase with a solid sorbent and liguid microextraction of sorbates for further gas chromatographic (GC) studies. To establish a measure of similarity (difference) between SM-SC samples, numerical methods of processing GC data are used with calculations of Pearson correlation coefficients or Euclidean distances and the construction of corresponding dendrograms. An algorithm for SM-SC analysis was proposed, including visual examination of the sample, GC-MS identification of the physiologically active substance, impurity profiling, selection of target compounds, and mathematical processing of chromatograms. The implementation of the proposed algorithm for the analysis of SM-SC allows us to obtain the most complete information about the component composition of samples, which is very important for assessing their toxicity and taking adeguate therapeutic precautions. Impurity profiling and the selection of target compounds with identification significance, followed by mathematical processing of chromatographic data, are additional tools in determining the measure of similarity (difference) between samples taken from illegal circula-tion.The latter can be used to establish the source of production and the chain of their illegal distribution.

smoking mixtures, composition, synthetic cannabinoids, GC-MS, analysis