Abstract
Marijuana is the most widely abused and readily available illicit drug in the United States, with an estimated 11.5 million current users annually purchasing more than $10 billion of the drug (1). Drug enforcement agencies are therefore keenly interested in trafficking routes of both foreign and domestically grown supplies of marijuana. From confidential sources to satellites, these agencies employ a multitude of methods to gather intelligence to direct resources, plan control operations, and develop policies. A practical means to recognize the source of seized marijuana would be a valuable tool for those purposes. Based on findings from 1990 to 1992 and described here, one way to determine origin is by using a chemical fingerprint system, a method that has shown promise as an effective intelligence tool to ascertain the geographic origin of confiscated marijuana samples. Of the many factors that affect the chemical constituents of marijuana, it is apparent that environmental factors consistently induce profiles unique to each environ. An “environ of origin” as broad as a continent or as small as an indoor garden may be differentiated based on the chemical fingerprint, or “signature,” of marijuana cultivated there—if a statistically significant number of samples grown in that environ are available for comparison. However, because all environs are not unique, the chemical fingerprint of cannabis is not considered to be an ultimate tool for forensic applications, although the technique may effectively support other types of evidence and is certainly of particular value in intelligence operations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Marnell, T. (ed.) (2001) Drug Identification Bible. Amera-Chem, Grand Junction, CO.
Holley, J. H., Hadley, K. W., and Turner, C. E. (1975) Constituents of Cannabis sativa L. XI. Cannabindiol and cannabichromene in samples of known geographic origin. J. Pharm. Sci. 64 (5), 892–895.
Small, E., Beckstead, H. D., and Chan, A. (1975) The evolution of cannabinoid phenotype in Cannabis. Econ. Bot. 29 (3), 219–232.
Steinberg, S., Offermeier, J., Field, B. I., and Jansen Van Ryssen, F. W. (1975) Investigation of the influence of soil types, environmental conditions, age and morphological plant parts on the chemical composition of Cannabis sativa (dagga) plants. S. Afr. Med. J. 49, 279.
De Faubert Maunder, J. G. (1970) A comparative evaluation of the delta-9-tetrahydrocan-nabinol content of Cannabis plants. J. Assoc. Pub. Anal. 8, 42–47.
Jenkins, R. W. and Patterson, D. A. (1973) Relation between chemical composition and geographical origin of Cannabis. Forensic Sci. 2 (1), 59–66.
Novotny, M., Lee, M. L., and Low, C. E. (1976) Analysis of marihuana samples from different origins by high resolution gas chromatography for forensic application. Anal. Chem. 48 (1), 24–29.
Wheals, B. B. (1976) Forensic applications of high pressure liquid chromatography. Chromatography 122, 85–105.
Baker, P. B. and Fowler, R. (1978) Analytical aspects of the chemistry of Cannabis. Proc. Anal. Div. Chem. Soc. 15 (12), 347–349.
Tucker, R. B. and Graham, B. F. (1979) Cannabinoid content of a stand of Cannabis grown clandestinely in Nova Scotia. J. Can. Soc. Forensic Sci. 12 (4), 163–172.
Baker, P. B., Fowler, R., Bagon, K. R., and Gough, T. A. (1980) Determination of the distribution of cannabinoids in Cannabis resin using high performance liquid chromatography. J. Anal. Toxicol. 4 (3), 145–152.
Baker, P. B., Gough, T. A., and Taylor, B. J. (1980) Illicitly imported Cannabis products: some physical and chemical features indicative of their origin. Bull. Narc. 32 (2), 31–40.
Baker, P. B., Bagon, K. R., and Gough, T. A. (1980) Variation in the THC content of illicitly imported Cannabis products. Bull. Narc. 32 (4), 47–54.
Hemphill, J. K., Turner, J. C., and Mahlberg, P. G. (1980) Cannabinoid content of individual plant organs from different geographical strains of Cannabis sativa, L. J. Nat. Prod. 43 (1), 112–122.
Baker, P. B., Gough, T. A., and Taylor, B. J. (1982) The physical and chemical features of Cannabis plants grown in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from seeds of known origin. Bull. Narc. 34 (1), 27–36.
Idilbi, M. M., Huvenne, J. P., Fleury, G., Tran Van Ky, P., Muller, P. H., and Moschetto, Y. (1985) Hashish analysis using gas chromatography coupled to fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. II. Tetrahyrocannabinol determiniation. Bull. Soc. Pharm. Lille 41 (4), 33–35.
Nakahara, Y. and Tanak, K. (1988) Studies on discrimination of confiscated Cannabis products by high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detector. Bull. Natl. Inst. Hyg. Sci. 106, 11–88.
Gough, T. A. (1991) The examination of drugs in smuggling offences, in The Analysis of Drugs of Abuse (Gough, T. A., ed.), John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, pp. 511–565.
Pitts, J. E., Neal, J. D. and Gough, T. A. (1992) Some features of Cannabis plants grown in the United Kingdom from seeds of known origin. J. Pharm. Pharmacol. 44 (12), 947–951.
Fagioli, F., Locatelli, C., Scanavini, L., Landi, S., and Donini, G. B. (1986) Characterization of narcotics of vegetal origin by their content of various elements determined by atomic adsorption spectrophotometry with sampling in carbonaceous slurry. Anal. Sci. 2 (3), 239–242.
Watling, R. J. (1998) Sourcing the provenance of Cannabis crops using inter-element association patterns “fingerprinting” and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spec-trometry. J. Anal. Atomic Spectrometry 19 (9), 917–926.
Hood, L. V. S. and Barry, G. T. (1978) Headspace volatiles of marihuana and hashish: gas chromatographic analysis of samples of different geographic origin. J. Chromatogr. 166 (2), 499–506.
Krishnamurty, H. G. and Kaushal, R. (1976) Free sugars and cyclitols of Indian marijuana (Cannabis sativa, L.). J. Chem. 14B (8), 639–640.
Bryant, V. M., Jones, J. G., and Midenhall, D. C. (1990) Forensic palynology in the United States of America. Palynology 14, 193–208.
Crosby, T. K., Watt, J. C., Kistemaker, A. C., and Nelson, P. E. (1986) Entomological identification of the origin of imported Cannabis. J. Forensic Sci. Soc. 26 (1), 35–44.
Smith, K. G. V. (ed.) (1986) Cannabis insects, in A Manual of Forensic Entomology, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, pp. 169–173.
Gilmore, S., Peakall, R., and Robertson, J. (2003) Short tandem repeat (STR) DNA markers are hypervariable and informative in Cannabis sativa: implications for forensic investigations. Forensic Sci. Int. 131 (1), 65–74.
Miller, C. H., Palmbach, T., Juliano, N., Ladd, C., and Lee, H. C. (2003) An overview of DNA methods for the identification and individualizion of marijuana. Croat. Med. J. 44 (3), 315–321.
Hsieh, H. M., Hou, R. J., Chen, K. F., et al. (2004) Establishing the rDNA IGS signature of Cannabis sativa. J. Forensic Sci. 49 (3), 477–480.
Gigliano, G. S. and Finizio, A. D. (1997/1998) The Cannabis sativa L. fingerprint as a tool in forensic investigations. Bull. Narc. XLIX & L (1 & 2), 129–137.
Adelmonem, A., Clark, V. A., and May, S. (2004) Computer Aided Multivariate Analysis, Chapman & Hall/CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
Everitt, B. S. and Dunn, G. (2001) Applied Multivariate Data Analysis, Oxford University Press, New York.
Turner, C. E., ElSohly, M. A., and Boeren, E. G. (1980) Constituents of Cannabis sativa L, XVII: a review of the natural constituents. J. Nat. Prod. 43 (2), 169–234.
Brenneisen, R. and ElSohly, M. A. (1988) Chromatographic and spectroscopic profiles of Cannabis of different origins: Part I. J. Forensic Sci. 33 (6), 1385–1404.
Adams, R. P. (1989) Identification of Essential Oils by Ion Trap Mass Spectroscopy, Academic Press, San Diego, CA.
Lewis, R., Ward, S., Johnson, R., and Thorburn Burns, D. (2005) Distribution of the principal cannabinoids within bars of compressed Cannabis resin. Anal. Chim. Acta 538, 399–405.
Lehmann, T. and Brenneisen, R. (1995) High performance liquid chromatographic profiling of Cannabis products. J. Liq. Chromatogr. 18 (4), 689–700.
Hida, M., Mitsui, T., Minami, Y., and Fujimura, Y. (1995) Classification of hashish by pyrolysis-gas chromatography. J. Anal. Appl. Pyrolysis 32, 197–204.
Brenneisen, R. and Meyer, P. (2004) Chemical profiling of Cannabis produced in Switzerland. Final Report to Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, University of Bern, Switzerland.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, New Jersey
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
ElSohly, M.A., Stanford, D.F., Murphy, T.P. (2007). Chemical Fingerprinting of Cannabis as a Means of Source Identification . In: ElSohly, M.A. (eds) Marijuana and the Cannabinoids. Forensic Science And Medicine. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-947-9_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-947-9_3
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-456-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-947-9
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)