Single-calibrant quantification of seized synthetic opioids by liquid chromatography-chemiluminescence nitrogen detection.

Drug seizures involving a wide variety of emerging new psychoactive substances (NPS) call for new approaches for instant quantification and valuation. Liquid chromatography-chemiluminescence nitrogen detection (LC-CLND) was used in the quantification of opioids with a single secondary standard (caffeine), utilizing the detector's equimolar response to nitrogen. The mean N-equimolarity of CLND for ten fentanyl derivatives and U-47700 by the present LC-CLND method was 96.4% (range 91-101%). The furanylfentanyl samples consisted of 112 powdery samples with a mean (median, range) hydrochloride purity of 13% (4.9%, 0.08-100%). The purity distribution of the furanylfentanyl samples was distinctly bipartite, showing only lower than 9% (N=98) and higher than 60% (N=14) purities. The carfentanil samples consisted of eight brownish sticky samples with a mean (median, range) hydrochloride purity of 0.064% (0.063%, 0.052-0.092%). The U-47700 samples consisted of seven powdery samples with a mean (median, range) hydrochloride purity of 89.0% (100%, 51-100%). The present application to synthetic opioid analysis widens the scope of the established LC-CLND method, previously found useful for single-calibrant quantification of stimulant/hallucinogenic and cannabinoid type of NPS.

Straightforward single-calibrant quantification of seized designer drugs by liquid chromatography-chemiluminescence nitrogen detection.

Sixty-one different psychoactive substances were quantified by liquid chromatography-chemiluminescence nitrogen detection (LC-CLND) in 177 samples, using a single secondary standard (caffeine), in a trial concerning the quantitative purity assessment of drug-related material seized by the police in 2011-2012 and customs in 2011-2013 in Finland. The substances found were predominantly substituted phenethylamines, cathinones, tryptamines and synthetic cannabinoids, which were identified by appropriate methods prior to submitting the samples for quantification by LC-CLND. The equimolarity and expanded uncertainty of measurement by LC-CLND were on average 95% and 13%, respectively, based on 16 different substances. The median (mean) purity of stimulant/hallucinogenic drug samples seized at the border was 92.9% (87.6%) and in the street 82.0% (64.5%). The corresponding figures for powdery synthetic cannabinoid samples seized at the border and in the street were 99.0% (96.8%) and 90.0% (92.2%), respectively. There was generally only one active drug to be quantified in each sample. Seized herbal samples contained 0.15-9.2% of between one and three components. LC-CLND was found to be suitable for quantification of the nitrogen-containing drugs encountered in the study, showing sufficient N-equimolarity for both stimulant/hallucinogenic drugs and synthetic cannabinoids. The technique possesses great potential as a standard technique in forensic laboratories.