Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) methods used to track down new psychoactive substances

New psychoactive substances (NPS) are molecules derived from known drugs whose structure is slightly modified to evade regulation. Since 2013, over a thousand new molecules have flooded the European market, making them a threat to public health.

As part of a project led by Jonathan Farjon, researcher at the Chemistry and Interdisciplinarity: Synthesis, Analysis, Modeling laboratory (CEISAM), chemists specializing in analysis and scientists from the French national forensic police service have succeeded in characterizing and quantifying these harmful and even deadly substances in mixtures, by combining Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) methods with databases.

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