Identification and quantification of synthetic cannabinoids in “spice-like” herbal mixtures: update of the German situation for the spring of 2015

In February 2015, 13 “spice-like” products, available on the German market, were analyzed. In total, eight different synthetic cannabinoids were identified by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), namely 5-fluoro-AB-PINACA, AB-CHMINACA, AB-FUBINACA, 5-fluoro-PB-22, 5-fluoro-AMB, MDMB-CHMICA, EAM-2201 and STS-135. In most of the products (11/13), only one synthetic cannabinoid was identified, while two products contained two or three synthetic cannabinoids. For some of the compounds (5-fluoro-AB-PINACA, AB-CHMINACA, 5-fluoro-AMB) only insufficient physicochemical data are available in literature. To our knowledge MDMB-CHMICA (sometimes mistakenly referred to as MBMD-CHMINACA) was not described earlier in scientific literature, and, hence, an in-depth characterization of these compounds by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, electron ionization–mass spectroscopy, electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectroscopy (ESI-MS/MS), infrared spectroscopy and ultraviolet spectroscopy was conducted for eight compounds. In addition, we developed an ESI-MS method for the direct quantification of synthetic cannabinoids in commercial smoking blends, without chromatographic separation. Quantification was achieved using methyl 3-(3-(1-naphthoyl)-1H-indol-1-yl)propionate as the internal standard with appropriate response factors. The total contents of synthetic cannabinoids in the investigated products ranged from 60 to 446 mg/g, while individual compounds ranged from 12 to 314 mg/g.