Drugs

Over the last ten years, numerous novel psychoactive substances (NPS) have emerged in the recreational drug supply. Upon synthesis or discovery, each of these drugs has been given a name other than its IUPAC chemical name, primarily for ease of communication. This has resulted in various naming convention for NPS, sometimes multiple within a given subclass. This webinar is aimed at tackling the naming conventions for NPS and the associated challenges encountered along the way.

The primary focus of this presentation is to develop a better understanding of the fragmentation behavior of emerging synthetic drugs in different types of mass spectrometers. The goal is to assist practitioners in seized drugs and forensic toxicology with their understanding of current casework, and to help them more-readily identify new drugs as they emerge.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on March 5, 2021.

This webinar will discuss the analytical methodology developed and validated to identify and quantify novel synthetic opioids and traditional opioids in oral fluid. The presenter will also discuss targeted and non-targeted approaches using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) methods for detection of fentanyl- and non-fentanyl related novel synthetic opioids. Additionally, this webinar with cover sample preparation techniques for isolating synthetic opioids with various chemistries and structures.

This webinar seeks to describe how preemptive synthesis and characterization of potent psychoactive substances from the literature can aid forensic scientists in the identification of unknowns appearing in samples emerging from illicit markets. Additionally, the presenter seeks to provide understanding of how gaps in pharmacological knowledge of old drugs can be exploited to find new emerging synthetic drugs.

This webinar was hosted by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on February 8, 2021.