A Holistic Approach to the Analysis of Novel Psychoactive Substances

Sutcliffe, Oliver B ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3781-7754 (2024) A Holistic Approach to the Analysis of Novel Psychoactive Substances. In: 34th International Symposium on Chromatography – ISC 2024, 6 October 2024 - 10 October 2024, Liverpool, UK.

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Abstract

In recent years, New Psychoactive Substances (or NPS) have received a lot of attention as a particularly prominent street drugs used within our communities. But beyond the horrifying photos capturing vulnerable members of our society collapsed on the street and the dehumanising headlines labelling users as ‘zombies’, very little of the media is actually informing us about the work that is tackling this global issue. Dr Oliver Sutcliffe will discuss this issue; explain the novel strategy for reducing the harm caused by street drugs, and the current work of the MANchester DRug Analysis and Knowledge Exchange (MANDRAKE) partnership. This talk will highlight, using key examples (synthetic stimulants, dissociatives and opioids), how our unique partnership model between UK law enforcement and academia – has pioneered rapid, robust and cost-effective holistic chemical analysis utilising chromatographic, spectroscopic and contemporous synthesis to deliver harm-reduction/intelligence sharing and to safeguard some of the most vulnerable members of our community.