1st Edition

The Analysis Of Drugs Of Abuse: An Instruction Manual An Instruction Manual

By M D Cole Copyright 1994

    Provides a self-teaching reference text for forensic chemistry laboratories and law enforcement agencies world-wide. The text includes sections on the importance of physical examinations of drugs and their wrappings; and the use of gas and high-performance chromatography.

    Preface

    Acknowledgments

    1 The drug chemist and forensic science

    Introduction

    Investigating the scene

    Record keeping

    General analytical considerations

    Drug regulations, the legal process and report writing

    References and further reading

    2 Physical description of drugs of abuse

    Introduction

    Cannabis sativa L. and products

    Whole plant

    Hashish

    Hash oil

    The active constituents of Cannabis sativa

    Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)

    Hallucinogens of fungal origin

    Hallucinogens from cacti

    The opiate drugs

    Raw opium

    Diamorphine

    Coca leaf and cocaine

    The amphetamines

    Methaqualone and mecloqualone

    Barbiturates

    Benzodiazepines

    Student exercises

    Cannabis plant material

    Cannabis resin

    Drugs of fungal origin

    Crude opium resin

    Heroin based power

    References

    3 Presumptive tests for drugs of abuse

    Introduction

    Tests for common drugs of abuse

    Cannabis and products

    The Duquenois-Levine test

    The Corinth test

    Lysergic acid diethylamide, psilocybin and psilocin

    Opiate drugs

    The Marquis test

    Mandelin test

    Cocaine and products

    Cobalt isothiocyanate

    Mandelin reagent

    Sodium hydroxide reagent

    The amphetamines

    The barbiturates

    The benzodiazepines

    The Zimmerman test

    The Vitali-Morin test

    Student exercises

    Cannabis and its products

    The opiate drugs

    Cocaine and metabolites

    Barbiturate drugs

    References

    4 Thin layer chromatography of drugs of abuse

    Introduction

    Spray reagents commonly used in drug analysis

    Fast Blue B

    Ehrlich’s reagent

    Acidified potassium iodoplatinate reagent

    Dragendorff reagent

    Fast black K

    Student exercises

    Cannabis and its products

    The opiate drugs

    Cocaine and surrogates

    Barbiturate drugs

    References

    5 Gas chromatography of drugs of abuse

    Introduction

    Interpretation of chromatographic data

    Standard mixes

    Retention time

    Kovat’s indices

    Quantification

    Student exercises

    Kovat’s indices and opiate drugs

    Gas chromatography of opiate drugs using temperature programming

    Gas chromatography of opiate drugs using derviatisation and temperature programming

    Cannabinoids

    Cocaine and surrogates

    The barbiturate drugs

    Benzodiazepines

    References

    6 High Performance liquid chromatography of drugs of abuse

    Introduction

    The separation process

    Normal phase chromatography

    Reversed phase chromatography

    Ion suppression chromatography

    Ion pairing systems and reversed phase chromatography

    Gradient elution systems

    Detector systems

    Quantification of samples and preparation of calibration curves

    Single point estimates

    Two point calculation: Y = mX + c

    Linear regression

    Diode array detection

    Student exercises

    Normal phase chromatography

    Analysis of opiate drugs

    Quantification of diamorphine in an illicit sample of heroin

    Reversed phase chromatography

    Barbiturate drugs

    Reversed phase chromatography and ion suppression – cannabinoids

    Reversed phase chromatography – diode array detection

    References

    7 Ultra violet spectroscopy of drugs of abuse

    Introduction

    Recording of an ultra violet absorption spectrum

    Drug identification

    Drug quantification

    Student exercises

    8 Infra red spectroscopy of drugs of abuse

    Introduction

    Sample preparation

    The gas phase

    Solutions of samples

    Nujol mulls

    The solid phase

    The thin film

    The dispersive infra red spectrometer

    Spectrum interpretation

    The hydroxyl group

    Amino, imine and amide groups

    The C-H stretches and deformations

    Double bond stretching

    The carbonyl group

    The fingerprint region

    Interpretation of infra red spectra of some common drugs of abuse

    The opiate drugs

    Morphine

    6-0-Monoacetylmorphine

    Diamorphine

    Codeine

    Acetylcodeine

    Methaqualone

    Cocaine

    The barbiturates

    Amphetamines

    Benzodiazepines, exemplified by Medazepam

    Student exercises

    Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy

    Library searches

    Microscopy and fourier transform infra red (FT-IR) spectrometry

    References

    9 Gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy of drugs of abuse

    Introduction

    The gas chromatograph – mass spectrometer

    Ionization techniques used in drugs analysis

    Electron impact mass spectrometry

    Chemical ionization mass spectroscopy

    Fast atom bombardment

    Advantages and disadvantages of mass spectroscopy

    Data interpretation

    Total ion chromatograms

    Mass spectral data

    Isotope peaks

    Selected ion monitoring

    Quantification using deuterated internal standards

    Student exercises

    Underivatised drugs

    Opiate drugs

    Cocaine and metabolites

    Derivatised examples

    Opiate drugs

    Cannabinoid drugs

    Drugs of particular interest

    Quantification using deuterated internal standards

    Student exercises: answers

    Plate section between pp. 20 and pp. 21.

    Biography

    M D Cole (Author), B Caddy (Author) Forensic Science Unit, University of Strathclyde