Stability of Synthetic Cannabinoids in Biological Specimens: Analysis Through Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

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.