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Cocaine Use Can Now Be Tested In Fingerprints Using Ambient Mass Spectrometry

hypnosec writes: A novel technique of detecting cocaine abuse through a simple fingerprint has been developed by researchers from the UK and the Netherlands, paving the way for a secure, non-invasive drug detection method. The research, led by University of Surrey and published in the journal Analyst, demonstrates for the first time that cocaine can be detected by the excreted metabolites – benzoylecgonine and methylecgonine – resulting from abuse of the drug. These chemicals are found in fingerprint residue, which the researchers detect using analytical chemistry technique known as ambient mass spectrometry.

4 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sensitivity by Khyber · · Score: 3, Informative

    The metabolites are stable for a long time. They can transfer from paper money to your oil/sweat-laden fingerprints.

    And it's usually $1s and $5s that test positive for cocaine metabolites, and cocaine itself.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  2. Re:seems kinda pointless by Shakrai · · Score: 3, Informative

    Your comment is highly misleading; with very few exceptions the police can't test you for drug metabolites without a warrant. Implied consent laws for driving and people on probation are the two scenarios that are most common. In the case of the former they may well need a court order, depending on the State. In NYS they can't ask for such an order unless you're involved in an accident involving personal injury. Mundane DWI and you refuse the chemical test? They can't do a damn thing about it. Run someone over and refuse the chemical test? They're gonna get a warrant and hold you down to draw blood.

    Either way, the cops aren't using drug testing to conduct fishing expeditions. It costs too much money for that. That CSI nonsense where they use DNA and mass spectrometry to figure out who threw the litter on the side of the highway? Doesn't happen in the real world. In the real world law enforcement agencies have finite budgets and testing for drugs, DNA, or even dusting for prints costs money.

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    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  3. Re:All about tha Benjamins by ganjadude · · Score: 3, Informative

    it is worse than that. There are stories of people having their life savings taken even without being charged with a crime

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  4. Re:It's not a failure, this WOsD by AK+Marc · · Score: 2, Informative

    You are ignoring the racial component. Blacks having relations with white women was one of the reasons on the congressional record that drugs were made illegal. And if drugs weren't illegal, how could we keep so many black people in prison? So many are in for drug-related offenses, or got longer sentences for a previous record that includes drug charges. If drugs were all made legal, and the prisons were emptied, then we'd have blacks out on the streets, sexing up our white womens.