New tests for detecting dangerous drugs

The reports focus on drugs sold as "bath salts", "herbal food", "incense", and other products with colorful names such as "ivory wave", "red dove" and "legal marijuana". Many of them have not yet been defined as illegal and cannot be detected using today's drug testing methods.

Scientists are reporting the development of new tests to help combat a surge in deaths, emergency room visits and other problems stemming from a new generation of drugs sold legally in stores and on the Internet that mimic the effects of drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana.

The reports focus on drugs sold as "bath salts", "herbal food", "incense", and other products with colorful names such as "ivory wave", "red dove" and "legal marijuana". Many of them have not yet been defined as illegal and cannot be detected using today's drug testing methods. A British researcher reported a new method for locating the source of the ingredients in products called "bath salts". An American researcher discusses the challenges facing law enforcement and policy makers in regulating synthetic versions of marijuana.

A team of researchers from the United Kingdom reported the successful use of an analytical method known as isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) in order to determine who is preparing imitation drugs that can cause euphoria, paranoia, anxiety and hallucinations when they branch, inject or smoke them and who The chemical companies that provided the raw materials for their preparation. "With the help of the new method, we can go back and locate the components of the starting materials," explains the lead researcher. This analytical method measures the relative amounts of the chemical element in its various forms, the so-called isotopic ratio. "This method was successful because the isotopic ratio of the starting material is transmitted, similar to a fingerprint, throughout the entire synthesis," explains the researcher.

"Bath salts" received a lot of media attention in the UK in early 2010, then became a problem in the US. These products are not located in the perfume section of the supermarkets - they are sold online, in street funds and in stores that sell drug use accessories. They are sold in small sachets for as little as $20 each for the true purpose of providing cheap, legal euphoria.

These powders usually contain the substance mephedrone (mephedrone), a synthetic compound structurally similar to the substance methacathinone found in the weed plant and defined as illegal in many countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. Normally, this means that these compounds (and their derivatives) would be illegal in these countries as well, but since bath salts are labeled as "not for human consumption", they bypass this restriction and other laws intended for medicinal substances for human use. Despite this, the states of Florida and Louisiana - two major centers where drugs of the bath salts type are used - expressly prohibited the sale of these substances. The US law enforcement authorities have banned the importation of these bath salts, and it is possible that because of this, drug dealers will set up secret drug laboratories on British soil. The new method provides law enforcement with a means by which they will be able to track down the manufacturers of these bath salts.
In a previous study, the scientists developed the first pure standard material for comparing it to mephedrone, as well as the first reliable test using liquid chromatography of the material, which can be performed simply in a regular MZP laboratory. The researchers are also developing a color change-based test kit for mephedrone, which should be available by the end of this year.

In another presentation delivered at the ACS scientific convention, researcher Robert Lantz from the USA describes another use that is legal in most US states - synthetic versions of the active substance in marijuana marketed as incense products, a seasoning product or as "legal marijuana" that provide a euphoric experience similar to that of marijuana Without them being detected by normal drug tests. "We are able to detect synthetic marijuana using modern analytical chemical methods, such as liquid or gas chromatography coupled to mass spectroscopy, but these systems are too expensive for the approximately ten thousand urine samples that most drug testing laboratories receive every day," explains the researcher. Most laboratories detect drugs using cheaper test kits based on antibodies, but since the structures of these substances are so similar, it is likely that different antibodies will be required for many of them, which will increase the price of these more sophisticated kits.

The use of synthetic derivatives of marijuana increased sharply in 2010, according to reports from the poison control centers in the US and reached the number of 2863 cases of use compared to only 14 in 2009. There are about two hundred synthetic derivatives of marijuana, but the Drug Enforcement Unit has banned the use of only five of them . A handful of states, such as Washington, Georgia and Colorado, have banned the use of five of them, but they are not always the same five derivatives banned by the Drug Enforcement Administration. "These countries have banned the use of a number of specified compounds without having any scientific basis for their choice," the researcher points out.

The state of Colorado recently passed a law prohibiting the use of any substance that binds to the cannabinoid receptor (responsible for the activity of the marijuana drug) in the human body. "The bill had positive intentions, but technically, the new law applies not only to synthetic derivatives of marijuana, but also to all derivatives that are produced naturally inside the body (endocannabinoids) and whose role is to regulate many normal processes," said the researcher.

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