GC-MS determination of non-volatile components of diluents in plastic smoking blends containing synthetic cannabinoids

Over the last decade a spread of novel psychoactive substances including synthetic cannabinoids (SC) has become a serious social problem. SC cause addiction and present a danger to life and health of people. Cutting agents are substances used to dilute drugs, psychotropic and potent substances in illicit trafficking. Determination of the qualitative and quantitative composition of the cutting agents has a high forensic significance as for assessing the potential risk to the health of consumers, as for establishing the generality of the source of manufacture of samples containing narcotic drugs. The aim of this study is the GC-MS determination of non-volatile organic components of cutting agents in SC-containing plastic smoking mixtures with the preparation of appropriate derivatives of non-volatile organic components. SC-containing plastic smoking mixtures, had withdrawn from the illegal circulation of the Transport Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Siberian Federal District in the period from 2016 to 2018, were used. 15 samples were analyzed. Sample preparation. The dry residue of water-soluble substances was treated with derivatizing reagents: 0.2 ml of pyridine solution containing hydroxylamine hydrochloride at a concentration of 25 mg/ml was added to the dry residue. Then solution was kept at a temperature of 70 °C until the precipitate dissolved. Then, 10 ^l of BSTFA (NO-bis (trimethylsilyl) trifluoroacetamide) was added to the solution and the mixture was kept at 70 °C for 30 minutes. GC-MS-analysis. Gas chromatography-mass analysis was made on chromatograph "Kristall 5000.2" (Russia) with a quadrupole mass-spectrometer detector "ISQ". Peak identification was based on a comparison of their mass spectra with the data of the mass-spectral library NIST14 and retention times of the standard samples. Results. The proposed procedure of sample preparation and GC-MS method may be a suitable tool for the qualitative analysis of the non-volatile organic components found in cutting agents of SC-containing plastic smoking mixtures. Polyols, monosaccharides, disaccharides and hydroxy acids were found in most of the studied samples.

smoking blends, synthetic cannabinoids, cutting agent, non-volatile organic components, GC-MS determination