Abstract
The analysis of drugs of abuse in hair and other biological matrices of forensic interest requires great selectivity and sensitivity. This has been traditionally achieved through target analysis, using one or more analytical methods that include different preanalytical stages, and more complex procedures followed by toxicological laboratories. There is no exception with 2C-series drugs, such as 2C-B, a new psychoactive substance (NPS), which use has emerged and significantly increased, year by year, in the last decades. Continuously new analytical methods are required to selectively detect and identify these new marketed substances at very low concentrations. In this case report, one former case of a polydrug consumer (charged of a crime against public health in Spain) was reanalyzed in hair matrix. In this reanalysis, 2C-B has been positively detected and identified using liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS/MS). The most selective analytical UHPLC-HRMS/MS method alongside a universal and simpler pretreatment methodology has opened up more possibilities for the detection of substances of different chemical structure and optimization of different HRMS/MS detection approaches allowing the identification of 2-CB in the hair of a real forensic case.
Highlights
Introduction2C-B (4-Bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine), popularly known as Nexus, Venus, Erox, Synergy, Performax, Toonies, or most known as “pink cocaine” ( it is not structurally related to cocaine), is chemically classified as a 2C-type phenethylamine drug with psychedelic and entactogenic properties [1]
2C-B (4-Bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine), popularly known as Nexus, Venus, Erox, Synergy, Performax, Toonies, or most known as “pink cocaine”, is chemically classified as a 2C-type phenethylamine drug with psychedelic and entactogenic properties [1]
UHPLC-HRMS/MS is a type of high-resolution mass spectrometry technique that was recently acquired by the Madrid Department of the Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences (INTCF)
Summary
2C-B (4-Bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine), popularly known as Nexus, Venus, Erox, Synergy, Performax, Toonies, or most known as “pink cocaine” ( it is not structurally related to cocaine), is chemically classified as a 2C-type phenethylamine drug with psychedelic and entactogenic properties [1]. Psychoactive Substances (NPS) [3] Such substances of the 2C series are phenylethylamine-type drugs [4] and can even be subclassified as dimethoxy-phenylethylamines where they share the following core structure proposed by Zapata et al [5], and are referenced in an article from Maurer’s 2C series [6] (see Table 1).
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