Simultaneous determination of 24 opioids, stimulants and new psychoactive substances in wastewater

Abstract

Wastewater-based epidemiology has become a reputable means to estimate drug consumption within a community. However, these methods typically focus solely on illicit drugs or a single chemical family, with multi-class methods out of favour due to the increased analytical challenges. • A sensitive liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 24 opioids, stimulants and new psychoactive substances in influent wastewater. • Filtered wastewater samples, preserved with sodium metabisulfite, were pretreated and 1000 times concentrated using off-line solid phase extraction. • The method was optimised and fully validated for all compounds, with limits of quantification between 0.2 and 300 ng/L. Method name: A quantitative method for the analysis of opioids, Stimulants and new psychoactive substances in wastewater, Keywords: Triple quadrupole, Matrix effects, Synthetic cathinones, Mass spectrometry, Illicit drugs