Identification of illicit drugs in vapes by GC-MS

Abstract

The use of vapes or e-cigarettes among Malaysians has been widespread. One of the nagging concerns is that the vape liquid could be used as an effective means to transport illicit drugs for immediate consumption or for distribution. To combat this issue, a gas chromatography-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) method was developed for vape products, to identify illicit drugs commonly encountered in Malaysia. Basic extraction using 1 M NaOH and ethyl acetate was found to be ideal, as this extraction technique was able to extract seven target compounds. Due to the varying nature of vape samples, 0.02 mg/mL was set as the target limit of detection (LOD) for all the target drugs, except for ∆9-THC which was set lower at 0.005 mg/mL. At the pre-defined LODs, ≥ 80% of the results showed positive identifications, except for morphine which only recorded 63%. At the levels near the pre-defined LODs, all compounds in different sample matrices presented excellent precision for the retention time with a CV ≤ 0.06% under both repeatability and reproducibility conditions. In addition, ≥ 80% of the results showed true positives at such levels. Carry-overs were also absent in all blank matrices following the analysis of high concentration standards.

Keyword:

• vape
• e-cigarettes
• illicit drugs
• screening
• confirmation
• GC-MS