As part of a special-release episode of the 2017 NIJ R&D Symposium, this online audio is a Just Science interview with Lindsay Glicksberg, a student at Sam Houston State University regarding the nature and benefit of her validated method for the quantification of 22 synthetic cathinones in urine and blood using liquid chromatography/quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (LC/Q-TOF-MS).
This validated method was used to evaluate the stability of synthetic cathinones in blood and urine over a 6-month period. Drug stability was assessed in terms of pH, temperature, matrix, concentration-dependence, and chemical properties. Given the proliferation of designer drugs, forensic laboratories must be able to identify these new drugs as part of antemortem and postmortem toxicology investigations. Due to limitations in immunoassay-based screening technologies, many forensic toxicology laboratories must rely on chromatographic-based screening approaches to detect these drugs in biological evidence.