Physico-chemical and vibrational characterization of structurally related schedule I synthetic cannabinoids

Abstract

Synthetic cannabinoids represent more than 60% of the substances seized by law enforcement authorities worldwide. These drugs are abused due to the fact that they have the same brain receptors (CB₁ and  CB₂) as natural cannabinoids such astetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and thus many of them mimic quite well the biological effect of THC. Another reason for their fast increasing abuse is related to the limitations of the current in situ analytical kits: for the moment, many synthetic cannabinoids do not yield positive results in drug tests designed for cannabis detection. On the other hand, because of their severe adverse effects, most of the synthetic cannabinoids have been listed as Schedule I drugs. In other words, these controlled substances do not have any accepted medical use and, in the same time, they are characterized by a high potential for abuse.

In this paper we are correlating physico-chemical properties with the ATR-FTIR spectra of a series of 17 Schedule I synthetic cannabinoids, the majority of which belong to the AM - xxx family. The common infrared bands found to be specific to the various groups of structurally related synthetic cannabinoids are presented in detail, as well as the bands specific to the chemical groups defining these groups of designer drugs.

The physico-chemical properties and the spectral information have been structured in a hybrid digital database that can be used for Quantitative Structure – Activity Relationships (QSAR).