Abstract: Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) are synthetic psychoactive substances that can pose a public health risk. The SCs are structurally variable and susceptible to structural modification. The rapid emergence of structurally unknown synthetic cannabinoids has led to new challenges in their identification. In recent years, machine learning has made great progress and has been widely applied to other fields, providing new strategies for the identification of unknown synthetic cannabinoids and the inference of possible sources. This paper describes the principles of commonly used machine learning methods and the application of machine learning techniques to mass spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy, metabolomics and quantitative conformational relationships of synthetic cannabinoids, aiming to provide new ideas for the identification of unknown synthetic cannabinoids.