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DESIGNING AN UNDERGRADUATE FORENSIC CHEMISTRY EXPERIMEMNT ON THE LEVELS OF MORPHINE IN URINE USING THE GC-MS**

Abstract

Morphine is an opioid that is used to relieve severe pain. Because of the euphoric effects that come with taking it, it makes it a highly abused drug. According to the World Health Organization, “in 2019 about 600 000 deaths were attributable to drug use. Close to 80% of these deaths are related to opioids, with about 25% of those deaths caused by opioid overdose”. In forensic toxicology, job-related drug testing, and anti-doping efforts, the identification and measurement of substances in synthetic urine samples has grown in significance. The aim of this experiment was to design a forensic lab on the identification and determination of morphine levels in synthetic urine samples. This experiment was conducted using Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to quantify the percent of morphine in a sample with a specific concentration. The GC-MS was chosen as the confirmatory test because of its sensitivity and specificity when detecting samples. Before this confirmatory test could be run though, the concentrations had to be made, then hydrolyzed with ��-glucuronidase, extracted with hexane/ethyl acetate, evaporated, acetylated with chloroform/pyridine, derivatized with acetic anhydride, quenched with methanol and hexane, evaporated again, and then finally redissolved in methanol and put into the GC-MS bottle to be analyzed in the machine. The data is still being collected while reevaluating the procedures.

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