Detection of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol in exhaled breath collected from cannabis users.
Exhaled breath has recently been proposed as a new possible matrix for drugs of abuse testing. A key drug is cannabis, and the present study was aimed at investigating the possibility of detecting tetrahydrocannabinol and tetrahydrocannabinol carboxylic acid in exhaled breath after cannabis smoking. Exhaled breath was sampled from 10 regular cannabis users and 8 controls by directing the exhaled breath by suction through an Empore C(18) disk. The disk was extracted with hexane/ethyl acetate, and the resulting extract was evaporated to dryness and redissolved in 100 μL hexane/ethyl acetate. A 3-μL aliquot was injected onto the LC-MS-MS system and analyzed using positive electrospray ionization and selected reaction monitoring. In samples collected 1-12 h after cannabis smoking, tetrahydrocannabinol was detected in all 10 subjects. The rate of excretion was between 9.0 and 77.3 pg/min. Identification of tetrahydrocannabinol was based on correct retention time relative to tetrahydrocannabinol-d(3) and correct product ion ratio. In three samples, peaks were observed for tetrahydrocannabinol carboxylic acid, but these did not fulfill identification criteria. Neither tetrahydrocannabinol or tetrahydrocannabinol carboxylic acid was detected in the controls. These results confirm older reports that tetrahydrocannabinol is present in exhaled breath following cannabis smoking and extend the detection time from minutes to hours. The results further support the idea that exhaled breath is a promising matrix for drugs-of-abuse testing.
Cannabinoid Markers in Biological Fluids and Tissues: Revealing Intake.
Understanding cannabis and synthetic cannabinoid intake history is vital for treating drug dependence, investigating cannabinoid effects, and providing information to healthcare personnel, medical examiners, and public health officials; this is particularly relevant today with cannabis medicalization and legalization. Required information includes identifying exposure, time of use, frequency of use, relapse, withdrawal, and predicting cannabinoid effects. Recent controlled cannabinoid administration studies enable the development of models and markers to better identify patterns of intake and exposure. Future challenges include developing behavioral markers of cannabis impairment, bringing to market breathalyzers for cannabinoid detection, and identifying markers of recent cannabis intake in diverse biological matrices. We posit that biological monitoring of cannabinoids and metabolites will improve the characterization of cannabis and synthetic cannabinoid intake history.
Effect of temperature on the solvated electron in 1-propanol
Abstract The technique of pulse radiolysis has been used to study the effect of temperature on the solvated electron in 1-propanol. The spectrum of the solvated electron has been measured in the range 140–298 K. The wavelength at maximum absorption, λ max , decreases with decreasing temperature (corresponding to an increase in the energy, E max ) but the spectral width at half height, ΔE 1 2 , changes little with temperature. At temperatures above ≈180 K, the formation of the solvated electron is complete at the end of the pulse and its spectrum shows no change in shape with time. Below ≈170 K, the absorption spectrum is time-dependent in both liquid and glassy phases, the changes being attributed to the solvation process. The reaction(s) leading to solvated electron formation following the pulse show an activation energy of 22±2 kJ mol − and the solvated electron decays with an activation energy of 20±2 kJ mol −1 . The yield of solvated electrons decreases continuously with decreasing temperature in the range 298-77 K and, at all temperatures studied, is less than the total ionization yield measured by scavenging techniques.