Analysis of Cannabis by Supercritical Fluid Chromatography with Ultraviolet Detection

Cannabis sativa L. and its products comprise a significant and important part of the forensic drug laboratory’s case load. Two principle types of analyses are required for the analysis of Cannabis , namely, identification of the material, since it is a substance controlled in the United Kingdom under the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1971 and its amendments, and second, the comparison of two or more samples of Cannabis to determine if they once formed a larger sample (1 ,2 ). Such analyses are generally carried out using combinations of presumptive tests, thin-layer chromatography (TLC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) (2 –4 ).