Date of Award

Summer 2012

Degree Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Criminal Justice

School

Criminal Justice, Forensic Science, and Security

Committee Chair

Thomas Pittman

Committee Chair Department

Criminal Justice

Committee Member 2

Dean Bertram

Committee Member 2 Department

Criminal Justice

Committee Member 3

Kuppareddi Balamurugan

Committee Member 3 Department

Criminal Justice

Abstract

Because of the high occurrence of marijuana usage in the workplace and in driving under the influence cases, it is important to test for both delta-9-THC and delta-9-THCA in order to determine current and recent usage. The laboratory preparation and analysis of delta-9-THC and delta-9-THCA in urine should be as cost and time efficient as possible. Current extraction of delta-9-THC and delta-9-THCA from urine requires two separate techniques for each. Because delta-9-THC is nonacidic, while delta-9-THCA is acidic, the extractions involve two separate pH levels, while GC/MS analysis requires two separate methods. This separation requires a great deal of time and materials. This experiment focused on eliminating the need for two separate extractions and analyses of delta-9-THC and delta-9-THCA. Both were subjected to simultaneous acidic extraction with hexane:ethyl acetate (4: 1). An F-ratio test determined that the dual extraction of delta-9-THC and delta-9-THCA gave concentrations that had no significant differences. The F-ratio for delta-9-THC concentrations was 0.191, while the F-ratio for delta-9-THCA concentrations was 0.021. Both fell under the critical value was 5.08 for a 0.01 level of significance. This showed that the concentrations of delta-9-of F for the analysis of variance from the table which THC and delta-9-THCA calculated for each sample's three aliquots were all significantly similar.

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