A new method to determine whether drug has been ingested

A British-led team has created a new method which can determine whether the drug has been ingested, rather than just touched.

They used different types of an analytical chemistry technique known as mass spectrometry to analyse the fingerprints of patients attending drug treatment services.

Dr Melanie Bailey, of the University of Surrey, said: ‘When someone has taken cocaine, they excrete traces of benzoylecgonine and methylecgonine as they metabolise the drug, and these chemical indicators are present in fingerprint residue.

‘The beauty of this method is that, not only is it non-invasive and more hygienic than testing blood or saliva, it can’t be faked.

globalscience.ru