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.

Comments

Re:All about tha Benjamins

[Mr. Slippery]

General skills, aka the ability to succeed in society without reverting to drug abuse, are considered when a company is hiring.

Chemcial tests can't tell whether a person is absuing drugs, only if they are using them. (It is a prohibitionist fiction that the use of certain drugs is inherently abuse.)

If the only way you can tell whether someone is using drugs is through chemical tests, ipso facto it is not affecting their performance on the job.