business

Gregory Janis is always on the lookout for the newest popular drugs.

He cruises online message boards and websites, hoping to unearth the latest invention, like synthetic marijuana. It's sold legally in some parts of Minnesota as incense, but when smoked, it gets people high.

Janis isn't a drug addict looking to get loaded, or a dealer searching for a business opportunity. He's a scientist trying to create new drug tests to catch users of the latest illicit substances.

"It's a business," said Janis, scientific director at New Brighton-based Medtox Laboratories, a leader in drugs-of-abuse testing. "We're providing information for health and safety. I'm not a crusader."

Creating the tests can be challenging and time-consuming. Medtox spent two to three months developing a test for synthetic marijuana, bringing it to market in September.

The $60 test detects whether a person has recently used the drug. Sold under names such as "K2" or "Spice" at local head shops, the drug looks like potpourri but has been sprayed with a man-made chemical that mimics the effects of marijuana.

Scientists say the drug could be more dangerous than marijuana because the side effects are unknown. Already, many European countries have banned it, as have some U.S. cities and states, increasing the demand among drug courts and rehab centers to find out whether their clients are using the substance.

"Suddenly everybody started talking about it," Janis said. "The Internet is just flooded with people chatting about this legal marijuana alternative."

Medtox doesn't necessarily develop tests for all new drugs right away. Some, like khat, a stimulant similar to methamphetamine, end up sitting on a drug test wish list, with Medtox waiting until there's enough demand. To put it higher on the priority list, Janis' team and the company's customers needed to make a case for synthetic marijuana to the company's executives.

Once they got approval, the team considered how to construct the test. Synthetic marijuana only stays in the bloodstream for a short time after a user gets high, so urine was the best vehicle for testing, Janis said. Medtox generally doesn't use other materials, such as hair, because of racial discrepancies. For example, the darker and thicker one's hair, the easier it absorbs drugs, he said.

"That's not a slope we would want to play in," Janis said.

Telltale metabolites

Next, the team figured out a way chemically to detect and extract synthetic marijuana. When synthetic marijuana goes through the body, the drug's chemical structure changes into a series of metabolites. Janis' team analyzes samples by first using organic solvents to extract the metabolites from the urine.

Then the extracts go through a high-performance liquid chromatograph, an instrument that exposes the extracts to flowing organic solvents and non-moving materials. This process further isolates and helps identify the presence of the metabolites.

The sample extracts are then directed into a tandem mass spectrometer that initially evaluates the molecular weight of the compounds in the extract and then breaks them into fragments. The fragments are identified by weight.

A test would be declared positive for synthetic marijuana if multiple metabolites showed up in the evaluations provided by the chromatograph and spectrometer, Janis said.

Once the test is ready, there is still more to be done to prove it actually works, Janis said. The company collects a dozen samples from people who admit to using synthetic marijuana and dozens of samples from people who haven't taken the drug. These urine samples undergo the drug test to determine if it works. Medtox also uses clean urine samples and adds synthetic marijuana to them, to see if they get a positive result.

Even once a drug test is made, it may need to be modified. More states and local governments are starting to ban certain compounds used in synthetic marijuana, but Janis said it's possible drug manufacturers may be able to bypass that, by using other legal compounds to get the same desired effect.

"It's going to be a bit of a cat and mouse game for a while," Janis said.

Wendy Lee • 612-673-1712