Hair analysis for JWH-018, JWH-122, and JWH-210 after passive in vivo exposure to synthetic cannabinoid smoke

Abstract

Hair analysis is often used to confirm abstinence from drug use. However, interpretation of hair analysis results can be challenging, particularly with regard to smoked substances like synthetic cannabinoids, because hair can be contaminated by side-stream smoke. In this study, we measured the concentrations of synthetic cannabinoids in scalp hair after exposure to side-stream smoke from a cigarette containing the synthetic cannabinoids JWH-018, JWH-122, and JWH-210. Three participants exposed their hair to the side-stream smoke once each working day for 3 weeks to mimic realistic conditions experienced by consumers of these drugs. Two other participants exposed their hair once to the side-stream smoke of one cigarette. Scuba regulators with external air supply were used to avoid inhalation of smoke. Hair segments and wash solutions were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The highest measured concentrations were 70 pg/ mg of JWH-018, 260 pg/mg of JWH-122, and 950 pg/mg of JWH-210 in distal hair segments collected at the end of the exposure period. At 2-3 weeks after the end of the repeated exposure, all three synthetic cannabinoids were detected in the hair samples of both participants with longer hair. In these samples, the ratio of cannabinoid amount in acetone wash to that in hair was below 0.5 for all synthetic cannabinoids, which could be interpreted as evidence of consumption. However, with the nonconsumption of synthetic cannabinoids by our study participants being confirmed by urine testing, it is apparent that even high substance concentrations in hair samples do not prove consumption and can be explained by external contamination after contact with synthetic cannabinoids alone.

Multi‐class analysis of new psychoactive substances and metabolites in hair by pressurized liquid extraction coupled to HPLC‐HRMS

“…There is still limited literature available about the analysis of NPS in hair samples and most methods involve gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC‐MS) or (ultra)high performance liquid chromatography((U)HPLC)‐MS(/MS) as detection techniques and are limited to a single analyte or to groups of related substances (i.e., synthetic cannabinoids or cathinones together with phenetylamines or piperazines). Strano‐Rossi et al .…”

“…However, cathinones are unstable under these conditions . Alternative options consist of methanol or ethanol incubation for 3 to 16 h or overnight sonication with aqueous solutions (appropriate for cathinones and phenetylamines only) . Data about the efficiency of the different extraction techniques are unavailable in the literature due to the lack of reference materials.…”

“…The detection of metabolites present in hair is, however, a desirable feature since it might facilitate differentiation between passive contamination and actual drug use. [8,9] There is still limited literature available about the analysis of NPS in hair samples and most methods involve gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) [10][11][12][13] or (ultra)high performance liquid chromatography((U)HPLC)-MS(/MS) [7,8,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] as detection techniques and are limited to a single analyte or to groups of related substances (i.e., synthetic cannabinoids or cathinones together with phenetylamines or piperazines). Strano-Rossi et al described the analysis of over 50 drugs, although their procedure was split into two separate extractions and included independent analytical methods for synthetic cannabinoids and cathinones.…”

“…[19] Alternative options consist of methanol or ethanol incubation for 3 to 16 h [7][8][9]14,17,22] or overnight sonication with aqueous solutions (appropriate for cathinones and phenetylamines only). [10,23] Data about the efficiency of the different extraction techniques are unavailable in the literature due to the lack of reference materials. Real positive hair samples have been used in some studies but the results were limited to the few analytes detected in the samples.…”

The ongoing challenge of novel psychoactive drugs of abuse. Part I. Synthetic cannabinoids (IUPAC Technical Report)

“…Hair is analyzed to determine historical drug use in consumers, while tissue samples are analyzed post-mortem and reveal substances consumed prior to death. One of the main challenges that arise when analyzing hair is the interpretation of results; it is essential to ensure true positives by screening for not only parent compounds, but also metabolites, as passive exposure to SCs contained in smoke has been reported to cause false positives [138][139][140]. Studies have also demonstrated that, for certain compounds, smoke condensates contain known metabolites of the parent compound of interest [141].…”