Update on NH Synthetic Cannabinoid Illnesses - July/August 2014

As covered previously, the state of New Hampshire issued a state of emergency regarding an outbreak of illnesses and hospitalizations surrounding a synthetic cannabinoid-containing bubblegum flavored product named "Smacked!" In my last blog post about this topic, we covered why it may take so long to release this type of information (chain of custody, instrumental analysis, QC, goverment-lab workflow, this ain't CSI, etc.)

According to a release (dated August 22, 2014) by the New Hampshire Department of Safety, Division of State Police Forensic Laboratory (provided to me by Ryan Lessard, correspondent at NH Public Radio, @Ryan_Lessard), one package of the "Smacked!" product contained ADB-FUBINACA and a second package of the same product contained PB-22 and XLR11. As we've mentioned before, there is no uniformity between products of the same brand! QA/QC? Who needs stinkin' QA/QC? Obviously, these vendors and manufacturers do not.

XLR11 was made a Schedule I controlled substance at the Federal level on May 15, 2013 and ADB-FUBINACA and PB-22 were made Schedule I on February 20, 2014.

The lab also identified AB-CHMINACA and FUB-PB-22 in packages of Ultra 2014 and Scooby Snax.

It is most interesting to me that the product manufacturer would knowingly use already federally controlled substances in the products. My previous speculation was that the compound would turn out to be an INACA series substances, so I was partially correct on that one (ADB-FUBINACA). I have a copy of the NH release, so if anyone wants it, please contact me at forensictoxguy AT gmail DOT com. I'm having trouble uploading a PDF version of it at this time.

By the  way, the NH state of emergency has expired.

Many of these compounds have been previously covered here on the blog:

The new synthetic cannabinoids on the block...

Alphabet soup compounds

Fair is foul and foul is fair...

Notice of Intent - 4 synthetic cannabinoids into Schedule I

Synthetic cannabinoids in New Zealand

The game is afoot!

Outbreak of Illnesses in Louisiana

AMB series of synthetic cannabinoids and comparison to the INACA series


Cheers,

FTG


UPDATE on 9/10/2014:

@Infectiouschris has uploaded the information from New Hampshire. It can be found here.