THC In Blood: Scientists Perfect Detection Technique Using Federal Money

Researchers behind a federal government-funded study have come up with new, innovative techniques to improve the precision of commonly used forensic testing procedures that seek to identify delta-9 THC – the main psychoactive component of cannabis – and its byproducts in blood samples.

Some four years ago the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), a division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) awarded the Virginia Department of Forensic Science (DFS) with $290,353 to "develop and validate an automated sample preparation technique for the quantitative evaluation of an expanded cannabinoid panel (CBD, CBN, THC, THC-A, CBD) in biological matrices."

The funding was part of a broader program that had a goal to identify "the most efficient, accurate, reliable, and cost-effective methods for the identification, analysis, and interpretation of physical evidence for criminal justice purposes."

Last month, DFS published a 107-page report that shed light on the technical intricacies of a method that "used a supported liquid extraction with dual column LCMSMS [liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry] analysis" to identify cannabinoids in blood and urine.

Rebecca Wagner, the chemistry research section supervisor at Virginia DFS shed more light on the goal researchers had in mind.

"The focus of the project was to develop and validate a method capable of separating and uniquely identifying Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (the active component in marijuana) from other tetrahydrocannabinol isomers in antemortem blood and postmortem blood specimens," Wagner wrote in an email to Marijuana Moment's Ben Adlin. "The method includes the confirmation and quantitation of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol and its metabolites."

Now read: No Correlation Between THC Detection And Driving Performance Found In Largest Trial To Date

Other Research Efforts

In the meantime, scientists have been trying to figure out for a while now, an appropriate and accurate methodology to determine if an individual has recently consumed weed.

A paper published in the Clinical Toxicology journal pointed out some new techniques. The driving simulation study was partly funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

“Since THC accumulates and lingers in fat tissue, daily cannabis users may maintain constant elevations of THC in the blood even long after the psychoactive effects abate,” said Michael Kosnett, MD, MPH, an associate adjunct professor and cannabis researcher at the Colorado School of Public Health in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health.

The problem with measuring THC alone is that THC remains in a person's system long after impairment has diminished or disappeared. Moreover, people who use cannabis daily, like medical marijuana patients, can have very high THC levels in their blood, even though they may have built up tolerance and are not intoxicated.

Now read: Study: THC In Blood, Saliva Poor Measures Of Cannabis Impairment, Unlike Alcohol

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