The Analytical Chemistry of Cannabis

A volume in the Emerging Issues in Analytical Chemistry series, The Analytical Chemistry of Cannabis: Quality Assessment, Assurance, and Regulation of Medicinal Marijuana and Cannabinoid Preparations provides analytical chemistry methods that address the latest issues surrounding cannabis-based products. The plethora of marketed strains of cannabis and cannabinoid-containing products, combined with the lack of industry standards and labelling requirements, adds to the general perception of poor quality control and limited product oversight. The methods described in this leading-edge volume help to support the manufacturing, labelling, and distribution of safe and consistent products with known chemical content and demonstrated performance characteristics. It treats analytical chemistry within the context of the diverse issues surrounding medicinal and recreational cannabis in a manner designed to foster understanding and rational perspective in non-scientist stakeholders as well as scientists who are concerned with bringing a necessary degree of order to a field now characterized by confusion and contradiction.

Brian F. Thomas, PhD, is principal scientist of analytical chemistry and pharmaceutics at RTI International, North Carolina, United States. He has more than 20 years of experience in analytical chemistry and mass spectrometry. He is the principal investigator/co-principal investigator on two National Institute on Drug Abuse repository and purity specification contracts. His principal duties include overseeing the development of chromatographic assays and spectrophotometric assays for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of bulk chemicals or chemicals in dosage formulations, biological fluids, tissues, or other complex matrices. Dr. Thomas was recently awarded RTI's President's Award for his scientific contributions to the institute.
Mahmoud A. ElSohly, PhD, is the director of the Marijuana Project at the University of Mississippi, which is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He holds more than 30 patents dealing with the processing, testing, and detection of drugs of abuse along with other patents dealing with biologically active natural products and compositions for the treatment of cancer and other in the diagnostics area. He has authored over 250 scholarly articles and more than 200 presentations at scientific meetings of professional societies relative to drug discovery, analysis, and metabolism. He is a member of many scholarly scientific societies and was recognized by The Scientist (April 17, 1995) and Science Watch (January, 1995) as the second most cited author in forensic sciences in the world for the period 1981-1993. Dr. ElSohly is also recognized in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology (October issue, 2004) as being one of the top ten (3rd and 4th) Most Cited Authors and Most Prolific Authors in the journal between 1981 and 2003.