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Drug Analysis: Using Hplc To Identify Two Common Cutting Agents Often Found Illegal Within Drugs, Jed Black

Senior Honors Theses

Oftentimes, illegal drugs are cut with additional substances, known as cutting agents. These cutting agents fall into two categories: Diluents and adulterants. Diluents have no physiological effect on the user and simply allow the distributor to give the perception of “more product made.” Common examples of diluents are usually everyday household commodities (i.e., sugar or corn starch). On the other hand, adulterants are used to mimic or enhance the drug's physiological effects (i.e., caffeine in cocaine). As such, these do have drug-like properties (i.e., CNS stimulation or depression, etc.). This thesis seeks to use High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) to efficiently …