Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry as a routine method in forensic sciences: a proof of maturity

The applications of LC–API-MS in routine forensic toxicological casework were presented. This technique has been used for routine determination of several groups of drugs: opiate agonists (like morphine, codeine, dihydrocodeine and their glucuronides, methadone, buprenorphine) cocaine and its metabolites (benzoylecgonine and ecgonine methyl ester), amphetamine and other psychoactive phenethylamines, like MDMA, MDE or MDA, benzodiazepine derivatives (flunitrazepam and metabolites, triazolam, bromazepam), hallucinogens (LSD, psilocybin, psilocin) and olanzapine, A common solid-phase extraction procedure for all drugs (with exception of LSD) has been developed. Among two ionization sources, atmospheric pressure chemical ionization appeared more universal and assured generally higher sensitivity. Only in the case of very polar drugs (e.g. psilocin or psilocybin) electrospray ionization was more sensitive. LC–API-MS became a very powerful and flexible method for dedicated analyses of substances of forensic interest. The use of this technique for general, broad applicable screening depends on the establishing of interlaboratory database of standardized mass spectra.