Abstract
New psychoactive substances (NPSs) are associated with a significant number of intoxications. With the number of readily available forms of these drugs rising every year, there are even risks for the general public. Consequently, there is a high demand for methods sufficiently sensitive to detect NPSs in samples found at the crime scene. Infrared (IR) and Raman spectroscopies are commonly used for such detection, but they have limitations; for example, fluorescence in Raman can overlay the signal and when the sample is a mixture sometimes neither Raman nor IR is able to identify the compounds. Here, we investigate the potential of X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) to analyse samples seized on the black market. A series of psychoactive substances (heroin, cocaine, mephedrone, ephylone, butylone, JWH-073, and naphyrone) was measured. Comparison of their diffraction patterns with those of the respective standards showed that XRPD was able to identify each of the substances. The same samples were analyzed using IR and Raman, which in both cases were not able to detect the compounds in all of the samples. These results suggest that XRPD could be a valuable addition to the range of forensic tools used to detect these compounds in illicit drug samples.
Highlights
The pharmacophore is the part of the chemical structure that is responsible for the biological effect of the substance
These findings are widely used in drug design; the pharmacophore theory has begun to be used in the illicit drug scene over the last decade
If the structure of an illicit drug is modified while retaining its pharmacophore, the newly prepared entity will not be covered by the current legislation, while its effects will very likely be similar to the already banned unaltered substance
Summary
The pharmacophore is the part of the chemical structure that is responsible for the biological effect of the substance. If the structure of an illicit drug is modified while retaining its pharmacophore, the newly prepared entity will not be covered by the current legislation, while its effects will very likely be similar to the already banned unaltered substance. These substances [called new psychoactive substances (NPSs) or designer drugs] are being monitored by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. There is a significant demand for the development of easy, fast and reliable field detection methods for psychoactive substances (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs Drug Addiction, 2018; European Monitoring Centre for Drugs Drug Addiction Europol, 2019)
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