UC Davis

Due to fentanyl and its analogs being scheduled drugs, they are more difficult to acquire, so illicit traffickers turn toward novel synthetic opioids. Nitazenes are an emerging class of synthetic opioids that are steadily increasing in popularity. In 2019, the Midwestern United States saw the first overdose cases involving isotonitazene and the number of cases, and variety of analogs have only increased. Nitazenes are extremely potent, on par with fentanyl and its analogs, about 1000x more potent than morphine. This makes them dangerous and the need for their identification is greater than ever. However, they constantly get overlooked due to minimal information about their usage. In this thesis, the best color tests for identification of nitazenes were determined, the best extraction technique was determined, and a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) method was optimized for the identification of nitazene citrate, metonitazene, isotonitazene, protonitazene, etonitazene, and etonitazepyne. Out of Marquis, nitroprusside, Mecke, Froehde, van Urk, Wagner, cobalt thiocyanate/ stannous chloride, ferric chloride, Dille-Koppanyi, and Liebermann’s, the best color tests were Marquis, Libermann’s and Wagner. Out of base extraction, pH 9 buffer extraction, and solvent dissolution with methanol, the best extraction determined for all of the analogs was base extraction with sodium hydroxide and toluene. A GCMS method was then developed for the analogs modified from the Sacramento District Attorney’s Lab of Forensic Services GCMS method. The method’s parameters were: 15-minute run time, 30:1 split ratio, injection volume 1 µL, and a temperature ramp rate of 20°C/min with a hold at 280°C for nine minutes. When run with this method, all of the nitazenes had good separation and abundance, allowing them to be added to the internal GCMS libraries. In addition to using the GCMS to characterize the nitazenes, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and TruNarc technology were also evaluated. Isotonitazene, nitazene citrate, and protonitazene were run on the FTIR and added to the internal library of that instrument. Metonitazene and etonitazepyne were not run on FTIR because they were in solutions of methanol and etonitazene was not run because there was not enough of the standard left to produce a usable spectrum. All analog standards were run on the TruNarc, however due to the amounts of etonitazene and protonitazene and the composition of the instruments’ internal library, only isotonitazene was able to be identified using this method. Finally, counterfeit pills found in the casework of the criminalists in the Controlled Substances section were analyzed for nitazenes and found not to contain any nitazene analogs evaluated in this study. As a result of this research, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Lab of Forensic Services now has a working method to identify nitazenes in their casework.