The Analytical Chemistry of Cannabis

Brian F. Thomas earned his doctoral degree in 1992 from the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, USA. He then joined Research Triangle Institute and assumed the role of Principal Investigator on National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) research contracts titled “Purity Specifications, Storage and Distribution for Medications Development,” “Preparation and Distribution of Research Drug Products,” and “Production, Analysis and Distribution of Cannabis, Marijuana Cigarettes and Related Materials.” Serving in these roles, he coordinated the preparation and analysis of research drugs and substance abuse treatment medications at RTI for over 28 years. In addition to contract research, Dr. Thomas served as Principal Investigator on several NIDA R01 grant-funded research awards involving the characterization of cannabinoid ligand-receptor interactions and their relationship to in vivo pharmacological effects. In 2019, he joined Canopy Growth Corporation as Senior Director, Analytical Chemistry, Discovery Sciences, and Pharmaceutics, where he had management oversight of drug substance and product testing to support preclinical and clinical studies of cannabinoids in accordance with regulatory guidance. He also directed the integration of medicinal chemistry and in vitro pharmacological screening approaches to support development of consumer products and drive clinical drug discovery and therapeutic product development and commercialization efforts. He was subsequently recruited by The Cronos Group to serve as the Director of Analytical Sciences, with management oversight of scientists at production and research and development facilities in the United States, Canada, and Israel. He also engaged with the US Hemp Roundtable and other trade and scientific organizations to provide critical input to regulations and regulatory oversight by state, federal, and international regulatory authorities. He is currently providing pharmaceutical consulting services as the Principal Scientist at Empirical Pharmaceutical Services, LLC. He also serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Bright Green Corporation and Biopharmaceutical Research Company, two of the cannabis companies selected by the US government to grow, manufacture, and sell, legally under federal and state laws, cannabis and cannabis-related products for research, pharmaceutical applications, and export. He has authored or co-authored over 120 peer-reviewed manuscripts and numerous book chapters, coauthored a book, and served as the Series Editor of Elsevier’s Emerging Issues in Analytical Chemistry.

Principal, Empirical Pharmaceutical Services, LLC, Manteo, NC, USA

Mahmoud A. ElSohly is a Research Professor at the National Center for Natural Products Research and Professor of Pharmaceutics in the Department of Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, USA. He is the Project Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse Marijuana Project at the University of Mississippi (1981 to present). He is President and Director of ElSohly Laboratories Incorporated, Oxford, MS, a small company providing precision analytical testing and manufacturing services for the drug testing industry since 1985. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in Pharmacy (Pharmacognosy) from the University of Pittsburgh in 1975. Dr. ElSohly 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. He has authored over 300 peer-reviewed scholarly articles published in top-tier international journals. He is a member of 14 scholarly scientific societies and was recognized by The Scientist (April 17, 1995) and ScienceWatch (January 1995) as the second most cited author in forensic sciences in the world for the period 1981–1993.

Research Professor in the National Center for Natural Products Research and Professor of Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, USA