NCJ Number
110353
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 33 Issue: 2 Dated: (March 1988) Pages: 568-595
Editor(s)
A M Dominguez
Date Published
1988
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the appearance of designer drugs in California in the 1970's, and introduces workshop presenter Dr. Gary Henderson who developed methods for determining analogs of fentanyl from biological specimens.
Abstract
It covers the appearance and wide use of abuse of analogs of amphetamine, DMA, DOM, DOB, MDA, MMDA, and TMA, and analogs of phencyclidine, and describes two deaths which brought the new drug problem to the surface in Orange County, California, in 1979. The use of routine methods for the analysis of a 'white powder resembling heroin,' including gas chromatography/mass spectrometry which failed to detect any drug, is discussed, as is the eventual discovery of the substance as methylfentanyl.