Project Overview: The objective of this project was to perform a survey of toxic adulterants in seized materials from across the United States.
Study Design and Methods: A total of 2,031 seized drug extracts were submitted to the CFSRE for testing. Laboratories were contacted and requested to submit seized drug extracts suspected of containing opioids (heroin/fentanyl), methamphetamine and/or cocaine. Samples were analyzed using a using a Waters ACQUITY UPLC® I Class Waters Xevo® G2-S QTOF. Analytical separation was achieved using an ACQUITY UPLC® BEH C18 (2.1 mm x 150 mm, particle size 1.8 micron) column at 50˚C with a flow rate of 0.4 mL per minute and 5 µL injection. The Xevo® G2-S QTOF operated in positive electrospray ionization resolution mode (50-1000 m/z) with collision energy of 10-40 eV. Samples were processed against a library containing over 1100 drugs, adulterants and precursors/by-products. Criteria for calling a sample positive included: a clearly identifiable chromatograph peak within ±0.25 minutes of analyte in database, an observed mass of the molecular ion within ± 5ppm of mass in database, an observed mass of fragment ion within ± 2mDa, and a response greater than 800 (in the 3D data).
