Celma, Alberto
- Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Identifying trends in psychoactive substance use is essential for developing effective public health policies. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) offers an objective and rapid approach to monitoring illicit drugs and new psychoactive substances (NPS). Given the continuous evolution of the drug market, it is crucial to establish analytical methods that can simultaneously analyze both conventional illicit drugs and emerging NPS. In this work, we present a novel simultaneous solid-phase extraction procedure coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the qualitative and quantitative determination of 36 psychoactive drugs (30 NPS and 6 illicit drugs) in influent wastewater. The methodology was fully validated, with linearity, accuracy, precision, and robustness meeting all the required standards. Additional assessments were conducted to evaluate filtration loss, matrix effects, and analyte stability. The validated method was applied to 63 influent wastewater samples collected in T & uuml;rkiye, revealing the presence of several NPS, including 4F-MDMB-BUTICA (detection frequency, 3 %), 4F-MDMB-BINACA-N-4-hydroxybutyl (2 %), ADB-BUTINACA (57 %), mephedrone (5 %), and ketamine (87 %). Biomarkers of illicit drugs (amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA, cocaine [i.e., benzoylecgonine], and cannabis [i.e., THC-COOH]) were detected in most samples, with detection frequencies between 65 % and 100 %, although some values were below the limit of quantification. This study represents the first validation of CUMYL-4CN-B7AICA, BZO-HEXOXIZID, 5F-BZO-POXIZID, 4F-MDMB-BINACA butanoic acid, and 4F-MDMB-BINACA-N-4-hydroxybutyl in influent wastewater, marking a pioneering effort in T & uuml;rkiye to monitor NPS and their metabolites through WBE. Considering the lack of historical data on NPS consumption in T & uuml;rkiye, these findings provide a novel insight into the patterns of NPS use across the country.
Keywords
Synthetic cannabinoids; Drugs of abuse; Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spec-; trometry; Solid-phase extraction; Stability
Published in
Journal of Chromatography A
2025, volume: 1760, article number: 466304
Publisher: ELSEVIER
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Drug Abuse and Addiction
Analytical Chemistry
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2025.466304
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/143690