What’s in the bag? Analysis of exterior drug packaging by TD-DART-MS to predict the contents

Abstract

The need for a safe and reliable presumptive test for law enforcement, first responders, and laboratory personnel is critical in the era of dangerous synthetic opioids and other novel psychoactive substances. Obtaining drug identification information without handling bulk powder is one way of accomplishing this task. This work evaluates whether trace residue on the exterior of drug packaging presents a potential source for presumptive testing. Utilizing a wipe-based approach, the outside of the packaging of nearly 200 case exhibits were sampled and analyzed by thermal desorption direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (TD-DART-MS). While residue on the law enforcement (outer) packaging was a poor indicator of the contents (less than 50% accurate), the exterior of the drug (inner) packaging was shown to be an excellent indicator of its contents (92% accurate).Quantitative analysis of the wipes, using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) showed that typical masses of residue on the exterior of packaging ranged from single to tens of micrograms – enough for detection by a number of trace detection tools. These initial results demonstrate that wipe-based trace sampling approaches present a promising, reliable, and safe method for presumptive testing by law enforcement, first responders, or laboratory personnel.