Section: 7 | Properties of Controlled Substances |

How to Cite this Reference

PROPERTIES OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES

Thomas J. Bruno

The following tables provides some important information that is used in the design of laboratory procedures such as chemical analyses and separations on substances that are listed as controlled substances by the U.S. government (Ref. 1). In most cases these substances are addictive and cause harm to humans. The substances listed here are only a small subset of those listed in Ref. 1, and are from Schedules I, II/IIN, and III/IIIN. Substances included in these schedules are defined as follows (Ref. 1).

Schedule I Controlled Substances: Substances in this schedule have no currently accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and a high potential for abuse.

Schedule II/IIN Controlled Substances: Substances in this schedule have a high potential for abuse which may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.

Schedule III/IIIN Controlled Substances: Substances in this schedule have a potential for abuse less than substances in Schedules I or II and abuse may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence.

Typically, very dilute samples of these substances are available as standards and laboratory samples for research, student experiments in chemistry and forensic science departments, and in forensic labs. The data in this table supports such analytical and educational work. Forensic labs, of course, also handle larger samples as evidence protected by a chain of custody.

Table 1 contains data on some of the most common controlled substances that are encountered in forensic work. While the data has been selected as the best available at the time, they should not not be used for legal purposes without further verification. Column definitions for Table 1 are as follows.

Column heading	Definition
Name	Common name of substance; substances are listed alphabetically by common name of base substance; derived salts are listed immediately below base substance
Mol. form.	Molecular formula of substance, in Hill order; formula is for the most common hydration state as appropriate
CAS Reg. No.	Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number
Sch. No.	Controlled Substance Schedule on which substance is listed (Ref. 1)
RMM	Relative molar molecular mass
t_mp	Melting point temperature, in °C
Sol.	Solvents (partial list) in which the substance is readily soluble
Insol. or low sol.	Solvents (partial list) in which the substance is either insoluble or very sparingly soluble
pKa	Acidity strength of substance; lower pKa value indicates stronger acid
Log P	Logarithm base 10 of octanol–water partition coefficient

There is some overlap with “Properties and Functions of Common Drugs” in this section, and those data can supplement what is presented here. Additional information on these substances can be found in Refs. 2-9. Reference 2 is actually a collection of monographs compiled by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) but made available on the SWGDrug online database.

References

Title 21 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 1308 - Schedules of Controlled Substances, U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, Washington, DC, 2020. <www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/21cfr/cfr/2108cfrt.htm>
Scientific Working Group for the Analysis of Seized Drugs (SWGDrug). <https://www.swgdrug.org/monographs.htm>
Bones, J., Thomas, K., and Paull, B., Using environmental analytical data to estimate levels of community consumption of illicit drugs and abused pharmaceuticals, J. Environ. Monitoring, 9, 701-707, 2007. [https://doi.org/10.1039/b702799k]
NIST Chemistry WebBook, NIST Standard Reference Database Number 69 (Last update to data: 2018).
Kinnunen, M., Piirainen, P., Kokki, H., Lammi, P., and Kokki, M., Updated Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Oxycodone, Clin. Pharmacokinetics 58, 705–725, 2019. [https://doi.org/10.1007/s40262-018-00731-3]
Trivedi, M., Shaikh, S., Gwinnut, C, Pharmacology of Opioids, Anesthesia Tutorial of the Week, 118-124, 2007.
Foye's Principles of Medicial Chemistry, Lemke, T. L., and Williams, D. A., Eds., Wolters Kluwer Health Aids (ESP), 2012.
See for example, Cayman Chemical, <https://www.caymanchem.com>, accessed October 2021.
SWGDRUG, Scientific Working Group for the Analysis of Seized Drugs, <https://www.swgdrug.org>, accessed October 2021.

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TABLE 1. Properties of Controlled Substances

Name	Mol. form.	CAS Reg. No.	Sch. No.	RMM	t_mp/°C	Sol.	Insol. or low sol.	pKa	Log P
Continued on next page...
Amphetamine (base)	C₉H₁₃N	300-62-9	II	135.2		acetone, methanol, ethers, hexanes	water		1.76
Amphetamine hydrochloride	C₉H₁₃N·HCl	1462-73-3	II	171.6	decomposes	water, chloroform, methanol	acetone, ethers, hexanes	9.80
Amphetamine phosphate	C₉H₁₃N·H₃PO₄	139-10-6	II	233.2	decomposes after sintering at 150 °C	water, methanol	ethers, hexanes
Amphetamine sulfate	(C₉H₁₃N)₂·H₂SO₄	60-13-9	II	368.5	decomposes	water, methanol	acetone, ethers, hexanes chloroform
Buprenorphine (base)	C₂₉H₄₁NO₄	52485-79-7	III	467.6	209			___	4.98
Buprenorphine hydrochloride	C₂₉H₄₁NO₄·HCl	53152-21-9	III	504.1	279-281	water		8.31
Cathinone (base)	C₆H₅C₃H₆NO	71031-15-7	I	149.2	46.5	ether, ethanol		___	1.38
Cathinone hydrochloride	C₆H₅C₃H₆NO·HCl	76333-53-4	I	185.0	189			7.55
Cocaine (base)	C₁₇H₂₁NO₄	50-36-2	II	303.4	98.0	acetone, methanol, chloroform, ethers	water, hexanes		2.31
Cocaine hydrochloride	C₁₇H₂₁NO₄·HCl	53-21-4	II	339.8	195.0	water, methanol, chloroform	ethers, hexanes	8.60
Desomorphine	C₁₇H₂₁NO₂	427-00-9	I	271.35	189	water, acetone, ethanol, ethyl acetate (alcholic solns. acquire a red color)		9.69, 10.62	2.47
N,N-Dimethyltryptamine	C₁₂H₁₆N₂	61-50-7	I	188.3	44-47	cholorform, methanol			2.06
Fentanyl (base)	C₂₂H₂₈N₂O	437-38-7	II	336.5	83-84	methanol	water		4.05
Fentanyl citrate	C22H28N2O·C6H₈O₇	990-73-8	II	528.6	149-151	water, methanol	chloroform, ethers
Flunitrazipam (base, Rohypnol)	C₁₆H₁₂FN₃O₃	1622-62-4	IV	313.3	170-172	acetone, chloroform	water, ethers, hexane, methanol		2.06
Heroin (base)	C₂₁H₂₃NO₅	561-27-3	I	369.4	173	acetone, chloroform	water, ethers, hexanes, methanol		1.69
Heroin hydrochloride monohydrate	C₂₁H₂₃NO₅·HCl·H₂O	1502-95-0	I	423.9	243-244	water, chloroform methanol	acetone, ethers, hexanes	7.60
γ-Hydroxybutyric acid	C₄H₈O₃	591-81-1	I	104.1	48-50	acetone, ether, methanol, water	cholorform, hexane	4.71	-0.40
γ-Hydroxybutyrate (sodium salt of base anion)	C₄H₇NaO₃	502-85-2	I	126.0	145-146	water, methanol	acetone, chloroform, ethers, hexane	___

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