Slashdot Mirror
Testing for Many Designer Drugs At Once
LilaG writes "Drug tests spot banned substances based on their chemical structures, but a new breed of narcotics is designed to evade such tests. These synthetic marijuana drugs, found in 'herbal incense,' are mere chemical tweaks of each other, allowing them to escape detection each time researchers develop a new test for one of the compounds. Now chemists have developed a method that can screen for multiple designer drugs at once, without knowing their structures. The test may help law enforcement crack down on the substances. The researchers used a technique called 'mass defect filtering,' which can detect related compounds all at once. That's because related compounds have almost equal numbers to the right of the decimal point in their molecular masses. The researchers tested their technique on 32 herbal products ... They found that every product contained one or more synthetic cannabinoid; all told, they identified nine different compounds in them — two illegal ones and seven that are not regulated. The original paper appears (behind a paywall) in Analytical Chemistry."
From the article: "The research is timely, too. 'Many drugs of abuse in the Olympics are designer drugs,' he [Gary Siuzdak] says, in the steroid family. Grabenauer plans to extend her method to other designer drug families."
Legalize the srelatvely afe, well-known ones, and then no one will be lining up to smoke incense or snort bath salts.
Somebody's snorted a few grammars lexdysia it appears...
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
Possession of any polyethylene chains between 10 and 30 mers is hereby ILLEGAL! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some microscopy to do on my water bottle...
Great Intellect...
The real title turned out to be far less exciting.
vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
Can't wait to be forced to provide mouth swabs at airports.
It doesn't take an oracle to figure out that orifice is optimistic.
...to just get a sample of Keith Richard's blood and run a comparison. If he hasn't done it, you don't want it.
Can't wait to be forced to provide mouth* swabs at airports.
*(or vagina)