Queen’s Chemists Devise New Approach for Rapidly Identifying ‘Legal Highs’

Chemists from Queen’s University have developed a new approach which now allows for rapid screening and identification of ‘legal highs’ or novel psychoactive substances (NPS).

Conducted by researchers in Queen’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, in conjunction with Forensic Science Northern Ireland, the project was funded by the Department of Justice’s Asset Recovery Community Scheme which uses assets seized from criminals.

Published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal, Analyst, the new approach will now enable statutory agencies to identify the actual substances contained within the legal highs more quickly, thereby enabling more prompt public health messages to be issued out to communities.

Additionally, as well as allowing agencies to build a comprehensive and ‘live’ picture of which drugs are currently in circulation, it is envisaged that the new rapid identification approach will also help speed up related criminal prosecutions.

‘Legal highs’ are substances used like illegal drugs, and have been responsible for a growing number of deaths in the UK over the last decade. Known as ‘legal highs’ because when first produced they were not covered by existing drugs legislation, they are now set to face a total ban from 6^th April, when the UK government’s new Psychoactive Substances Act, comes into force. The ban covers (with the exception of a number of listed compounds such as alcohol, caffeine, etc.), ‘any substance intended for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect’, with those caught producing or supplying such drugs facing a maximum prison sentence of seven years.

Devised by Professor Steven Bell and PhD researcher Louise Jones in Queen’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, the new approach combines rapid screening for known drugs with in-depth analysis of new compounds. The screening works by detecting the characteristic vibrations of the bonds within the samples by focusing a laser on the sample and measuring the energy of light scattering from it.

The vibrations are chemical signatures of the compounds, so when they have been recorded, they can be searched against a ‘library’ of known compounds. They are then either identified as known compounds or marked as new variants which can then be taken for further analysis in the laboratory.

In the Queen’s study, 75 per cent of more than 200 previously samples seized by the PSNI, could be identified immediately. In the future, it is hoped that this will allow for laboratory facilities to be freed up for in-depth investigation of those compounds identified as new and unknown.

Speaking about the work, Professor Steven Bell, said, ‘The production of these drugs is constantly evolving and unfortunately there have been many instances of highly dangerous variants appearing, causing multiple fatalities before the threat they posed was recognise.

‘In 2014 alone 101 new psychoactive substances were identified. As a result of the new approach devised at Queen’s, we predict that we will be able to identify many more substances and at a much more rapid pace as our work in this area progresses. This will not only aid in the creation of new legislation but will also enable more meaningful information to be available to the Community, Police and Public Health agencies, with the aim of saving lives and preventing serious injury.’