It has long been suspected that the illicit distribution of cocaine in the United States has led to a large-scale contamination of the currency supply. To investigate the extent of contamination, 418 currency samples (4174 bills) were collected from 90 locations around the United States from 1993 to 2009. The extent of their cocaine contamination was quantitated via gas chromatography/mass spectrometry or liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. The level of cocaine contamination was determined to average 2.34 ng/bill across all denominations ($1, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100). Levels of cocaine contamination on currency submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in criminal cases over the 1993-2001 timeframe had significantly higher contamination than currency in general circulation. A mathematical model was developed based on the background survey that indicates the likelihood of drawing a bill in specific concentration ranges. For example, there is a 0.8349 likelihood that random bill will have contamination less than 20 ng.
The focus of this study was to determine the stability of four synthetic cannabinoids, XLR-11, UR-144, AB-Pinaca and AB-Fubinaca in biological specimens for the purpose of casework processing prioritization. The study used human whole blood spiked with the compounds of interest to mimic real forensic laboratory samples submitted for synthetic cannabinoid analysis. The spiked whole blood specimens were incubated under one of three temperature conditions: room or ambient (22°C), refrigerated (4°C) and frozen (-20°C) for a period of 12 weeks. Study specimens were then extracted using a forward alkaline extraction at pH 10.2 and analyzed using a liquid chromatograph tandem mass spectrometer (LC-MS-MS). Under all incubation conditions results showed that AB-Fubinaca, AB-Pinaca and UR-144 were relatively stable while XLR-11 significantly degraded at ambient and refrigerated conditions. Frozen storage conditions were the only tested parameter able to preserve and stabilize all four compounds over the three month period. Therefore, it should be suggested that forensic blood evidence suspected of containing synthetic cannabinoid compounds should be stored in frozen conditions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.