Analysis Of Cannabis In Body Fluids: Fitting For Purpose

Michal Rotenberg, Laboratory of Clinical toxicology and Pharmacology, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel (michal.rotenberg@sheba.gov.il)

Cannabis is the most widely consumed drug of abuse, especially among the young population. Furthermore, in the last years, it has been introduced as a medicine in the treatment of specific conditions, among which cancer and multiple sclerosis as a pain reliever, epilepsy in children, and some types of autism.

Thus, detection of cannabinoid compounds is needed for several purposes: rehabilitation of addicts, medico-legal tests for law enforcement, forensics, and lately, therapeutic drug monitoring.

For each of these endeavors there are different analytical requirements:

• Quantification of the analyte versus qualitative detection.
• Different levels of confidence for clinical purposes versus forensic analysis.
• Detection of cannabis in general or detection of specific cannabinoid compounds.
• Choice of appropriate body fluid for the specific purpose.

The methodologies used for the analysis of cannabis are immunochemical tests and mass-spectrometry (GC/MS and UPLC/MS) as standalone methods or combined with each other. Interpretation of results stems from the choice of the body fluid (usually blood or urine) and from the analytical method used.

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Short Biography of Presenting Author
After graduating in biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dr. Rotenberg obtained a Master's and a PhD degree in biochemistry at the University of Tel Aviv. Hence, she attained a post-doctoral fellowship at the Cornell University Medical College in New York, in the field of modulation of UDP-glucuronosyl transferase kinetics in model systems.
She spent two years as a research associate at Tel Aviv University before joining the laboratory of clinical toxicology and pharmacology at the Sheba Medical Center, which she directs since 2010.