State Laboratory Response to
„Legal Highs‟ and Gulf Oil
Jeffery H. Moran, Ph.D.
Arkansas Department of Health –
Public Health Laboratory
Two Faces of K2
Designer Drugs & “Legal Highs”
“Where does a
parent go to get
answers?”
“We talk to our kids
about sex.
We talk to our kids
about drugs, and we
talk to our kids
about drinking and
being responsible.
But how can you
talk to your kids
about something you
don’t even know
about?”
Synthetic Marijuana/THC Based Drugs
• Decreased intraocular pressure
• Anti-emetic*
• AIDs wasting*
• Anti-convulsant
• Muscle spasm
*FDA approved indication for dronabinol
Many Synthetic
Derivatives Fail
Human Trials
NO
JWH-018 JWH-073
NO
H
H
O
OH
Delta-9-THC
Reasons for K2 Popularity
• Pharmacologically active
• Legal
• Easily produced and distributed
• Easily modified to stay in front of regulations
• Not detectable on a clinical drug screen!
…Get your weekend high and show up to work on Monday with no worries.
Public Health Problems
• Product Specific:
– Potency differences (less than, no difference, and 5 to 10X)
– Complex Mixtures
– Overdosing
• Memory and learning problems
• Anxiety, panic attacks, extreme agitation, hallucinations,
seizures
• Loss of judgment
• Driving impairment
• Increased CB2 Effects – Immunosuppression
“their [JWH Compounds] effects in humans have not
been studied and they could very well have toxic effects.”
– John W. Huffman, NY Times 2010
Arkansas K2 Research Consortium
• Statewide Surveillance
• K2 Product Testing
• Testing of Human Specimens
• State Regulations
• Basic Research
• Poison Control Center
Tra
nsla
tion
al S
cie
nc
e
• Compiling Clinical Data
& Samples
Product Material & Packaging
124 Different Products Submitted
• Armageddon
• Astral Blast
• Blue Fire
• Cloud 10
• Coma
• Demon Ritual Botanical
• Funky Green Stuff
• Head Trip
• Herbal Incense
• K2
• K2 Blonde
• K2 Blue
• K2 Blueberry
• K2 Cloud 9
• K2 Melon
• K2 Pink
• K2 Summit
• K2 Watermelon
• K3
• K3 Ultimate
• Kush
• Legal Eagle
• Super Kush
• Texas Kush
• Utopia
• Voodoo Spice
• Zombie Twilight
Forensic Surveillance-
GC/MS Analysis of K2 Case Submissions
• 566 samples
(206 cases)
since March
2010
46 Different Combinations of Compounds
JWH-018,
JWH-073
(13%)
AM2201
(10%)
• Compounds detected in products collected in Arkansas:
-- JWH-018, JWH-019, JWH-073, JWH-081, JWH-122,
JWH-203, JWH-210, JWH-250
-- AM-694, AM-2201
-- RCS-4, RCS-8
JWH-203,
JWH-250
(3%)
JWH-122,
JWH-210
(4%)
JWH-250
(3%)
RCS-4
(3%)
AM2201,
JWH-122,
JWH-210
(3%)
AM2201,
JWH-210
(5%)
• Each color on chart represents a unique drug combination
Clinical/Toxicology Testing Capabilities
“Phase I”
Liver P450
Hydroxylation
(Sobolevsky et. al.
2010)
Parent Drug:
JWH-018
“Phase II”
Liver UGT
Conjugation
(Sobolevsky et. al.
2010)
Purpose: Increase Water Solubility
Metabolic Excretion
Regulatory Process
• Several states have banned these substances by scheduling.
• The US Armed forces have banned both use and distribution.
• Several counties and municipalities in Arkansas banned it by local ordinance.
• Arkansas became the first state to ban it by rule on July 2, 2010.
• Arkansas Acts 587 and 751 in March 2011
• Federal regulations began March 1, 2011.
Summary
– Deceptive labeling
– Compounds vary from product to product
– Concentrations of the compounds vary within the package – “Hot Spots”
– Concentrations of the compounds vary between different lots of the same products
• New compounds emerging that skirt the existing regulations
• No Quality Assurance/Control for K2 products:
• Human testing now available for some derivatives
Conclusions: Effective Public Health Response
HUMAN
TESTING
BASIC
RESEARCH
REGULATION
K2 PRODUCT
TESTING TRANSLATIONAL
SCIENCE
Educational and
Community Outreach
http://www.ncsl.org/?TabId=21398
Educational Resources for K2
State LRN Response to Gulf Oil
Meets FDA Requirements and Analytical Demands
Summary
• Diverse examples showing how the AR PHL
constantly protects public health
• Everyday lives touched by the AR PHL
• Understand how the AR PHL responds to new
threats & why part of our mission involves
non-routine testing
Acknowledgements
Cindy Moran, Felesia Lackey, Amy Patton
Forensic Chemistry Section
Krishna Chimalakonda, Vi-Huyen Le, Katie Seely,
John Blevins, Kevin Stewart. Morgan Donaldson,
Suzanne Owen
Laura James, Beth Storm, Leah Dawson, Michelle Frost,
Lisa Bates-Dubrow, Jessica Enderlin
Anna Radominska-Pandya, Stacie Bratton, Paul Prather,
Lisa Brents, Bill Fantegrossi
Arkansas K2 Translational Research Group
• APHL – Innovations Contract Award
(U60/CD303019)
• UAMS Center for Clinical and
Translational Research, (1UL1RR029884)
• UAMS - Center for Translational
Neuroscience (RR020146)
• NIH - GM075893 and R01-GM075893
Acknowledgements Grants and Contracts