The use of a simple rapid acetonitrile work-up followed by a TurboFlow method (online extraction and chromatography) on the Thermo Scientific Transcend TLX-1 system with tandem MS/MS allowed the specific and sensitive analysis of various common opiates and their metabolites from a small volume of whole blood. Moreover, a limited portion of the acetonitrile extract volume was utilized in the analysis, thus, the method presents potential to scale down to a volume of blood achievable from a finger prick (5–10 μL). The calibration curves for all analytes analyzed were linear over the concentration range and carryover wascalculated at less than 1% for all analytes. Since the method is ~ 4 minutes, 15 samples per hour may becompleted, or indeed, doubled/quadrupled with the use of multiplexing. Significant time is saved in theabsence of SPE sample preparation. The method enables the forensic toxicologist to produce a full picture of the opiates and metabolites in blood to assist with the determination of time of injection (presence of 6-MAM) and the detection of M3G and M6G to determine prior use or accumulation following heavy use.

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