Direct analysis of THC containing edibles using Py-GC/MS

Edible cannabinoid products have been in high demand for the past century due to their ease of use, discretion, and most importantly due to the induced long lasting psychoactive effect. Therefore, monitoring and analyzing THC edibles is critical. In this study, THC edibles were analyzed qualitatively using pyrolysis coupled with GC/MS as an innovative application to compare its sensitivity and effectiveness to other traditional techniques such as GC/MS, by analyzing seven different edible cannabinoids that were collected from Dubai Police Forensic Laboratories from the years 2017-2022. Pyrolysis GC/MS is known to provide an easier, and faster analysis technique and this study validates its use in the analysis of cannabis edible products. Results showed that Py-GC/MS is a reliable technique for the analysis of edible cannabinoids as a linear regression was obtained between concentration and abundance with R² = 0.99, also it was found that matrix effect was significantly reduced in comparison to GC/MS analysis. Sample preparation time and the use of chemical reagents were reduced, saving both time, cost and most importantly limiting human error impact on the analysis.