Abstract
The consumption of illicit drugs represents a global social and economic problem. Using suitable analytical methods, monitoring, and detection of different illegal drugs residues and their metabolites in wastewater samples can help combat this problem. Our article defines a method to develop, validate, and practically applicate a rapid and robust analytical process for the evaluation of six naturally occurring cannabinoids (CBG, CBD, CBDV, CBN, THC, THCV), two cannabinoids in acidic form (CBDA, THCA-A), and the major cannabis-related human metabolite (THC-COOH). After SPE offline enrichment, we used a UPLC–ESI-MS/MS system, which permitted the determination of several by-products. Studied matrices were samples of different origins: (i) effluent water from a wastewater treatment plant in the Porto urban area; (ii) environmental water from Febros River, the last left-bank tributary of the Douro River. The multi-residue approach was substantiated and successfully employed to analyze the water samples collected in the above locations. The rapid and precise quantification of nine different cannabinoids in different water samples occurred within nine minutes at the ng L−1 level. The appearance of dozens of ng L−1 of some cannabis secondary metabolites, such as CBD, CBDA, CBN, THCA-A, indicates this plant species’ widespread usage among the general population in the considered area.
Highlights
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutralCannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) is a controversial plant species and the most used illicit drug worldwide [1,2,3]
We developed an analytical method based on UPLC-electrospray ionization (ESI)–MS/MS instrumental anal
−1 levels in surface water and urban effluent wastewater. This relevant metabolites at ng conservative criterion; we describe these analytes as detectable with concentrations method allowed to depict validate a highly technological extraction and an anaabove the limit of detection (LOD) of the method butusbelow theand lytical method for screening one of the most used illicit drugs, marijuana, at the outlet of a WWTP and in Febros River water located in Vila Nova de Gaia (Porto urban area, northern Portugal)
Summary
Cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) is a controversial plant species and the most used illicit drug worldwide [1,2,3]. Sewage epidemiology represents a technologically advanced and rapidly growing field that monitors and assesses population consumption from excreted quantities of a drug residue/metabolite in environmental water samples It has been beneficial in collecting society-wide data and individuating new psychoactive substances or emerging recreational drugs [46]. The presence of an HM in detectable concentrations at the inlet of sewage catchment areas such as a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and a sewage treatment plant is an indicator of significant drug use These sewage epidemiology approaches are more often used to observe consumption trends and loads by directly measuring a specific drug of abuse or a related HM, estimating the consumption via back-calculations [51,52]. The four cannabinoids, namely CBDA, CBDV, CBG, and THCV, have never been considered in WWA and sewage epidemiology approaches before the present study
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