The Synthetic Cannabinoid Chemical Arms Race and Its Effect on Pain Medication Monitoring
In recent years, synthetic cannabinoids (or “spice”) have experienced a boom in popularity. The negative health effects of these drugs coupled with their increasing popularity led to placement onto Schedule I by the DEA. In response, the chemists behind these illicit compounds frequently invent new compounds to circumvent the law. Thus, new classes and new examples within classes of “spice” continue to become available for illicit use. In this paper, we examine the use of two different column chemistries (C18 and phenyl-hexyl) in an effort to definitively identify synthetic cannabinoid compounds in patient samples.
