Citation

Paul ABM, Simms L, Amini S, Paul AE. J. Forensic Sci. 2018; 63(4): 1321-1324.

Affiliation

Office of the Medical Examiner, Clark County Coroner, 1704 Pinto Lane, Las Vegas, NV, 89106.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.13704

PMID

29194599

Abstract

Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) are commonly abused by adolescents with reported past year (2013) use in high school students between 3 and 10%. Standard adolescent postmortem toxicology does not include routine SC analysis, and thus, the true burden of fatalities related to SCs is unknown. A retrospective case review of two cases included scene investigation, interviews, autopsy, and toxicology. SCs were confirmed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Review of the eight adolescent SC-associated fatalities in the literature revealed five of eight cases had no other discernible cause of death on autopsy. Compounds detected included PB-22 (1.1 ng/mL), JWH-210 (12 ng/mL), XLR-11 (1.3 ng/mL), JWH-122, AB-CHMINACA (8.2 ng/mL), UR-144 (12.3 ng/mL), and JWH-022 (3 ng/mL). With synthetic drug use on the rise, forensic experts should have a high index of suspicion for the possibility of SC intoxication in adolescent fatalities with no other discernible cause of death.

© 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescent health; forensic science; liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry; mortality; spice; street drugs; substance abuse detection; synthetic cannabinoids