Lysergic acid

Description

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a controlled substance in forensic chemistry that is notorious for being difficult to identify. Its myriad evidentiary forms include paper tabs, eye drops, sugar cubes and small sugary candies such as sweet tarts, valentine hearts or mints.

Most forensic laboratories confirm the presence of LSD by using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC/MS).

We describe the benefits of a method to positively identify trace amounts of e LSD in sugar candy quickly, with minimal sample preparation and no chemical derivatization.