A VALIDATED METHOD FOR SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS IN FORENSIC CASES

Abstract

The "new generation" synthetic cannabinoid called “bonsai” which is especially popular in the last few years in Turkey, is concerned as a threat to public health by increasing the use. Synthetic cannabinoids are man-made mind-altering chemicals that are either sprayed on dried, shredded plant material that can be smoked or sold as liquids to be vaporized and inhaled. In particular, they are common among teens and young and sold with warranties of pleasure given by arbitrary marijuana. Therefore, urgent health problems or deaths and crime rates are common in children and adolescents who are under effect of substances and not aware of their leading dangerous. However, these cases are not used for routine confirmation tests to determine the exact use of synthetic cannabinoids. Thereby our knowledge about the actual utilization rates remains low. Our laboratory is one of the first laboratories to establish the confirmation tests for synthetic cannabinoids in Turkey. We developed and validated a LC-MS-MS method by which we can determine fifteen synthetic cannabinoids simultaneously for now and we will enlarge our test panel in future due to the growing number of these designer drugs.

Keywords

• A VALIDATED METHOD FOR SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS IN FORENSIC CASES

Kaynakça

1. Mukaddes GÜRLER Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University