Slashdot Mirror
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.
it is worse than that. There are stories of people having their life savings taken even without being charged with a crime
Yeah but for some schizophrenic reason they still call it the "land of the free". "Denial" isn't just a river in Egypt you know.
Oh yeah and from the summary, this is ridiculous.
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.
Yeah there's nothing invasive whatsoever about having your unique fingerprint on file, never to be deleted, and linked to the results of a drug test with an unspecified fase-positive rate and no appeals process. Really? The War on (some) Drugs is bullshit to begin with, and the fact that it provides so many excuses for shit like this is just one of many reasons to end it (other reasons being the freedom of consenting adults, and a notion of justice with this being a victimless crime).
Anybody who wants drugs can get them. They cannot even keep drugs out of PRISON. That's just a fact, even though the prison environment strongly favors the people trying to prohibit drugs. Oh and it's easier for teenagers to get illegal drugs than it is for them to get alcohol since drug dealers don't ask for ID. The War on (some non-patentable, not pushed by Big Pharma) Drugs is a failure. It's past time to stop this futile effort and move on to something that might work, such as regulated legal sales to adults. It only took about a decade for people to realize that alcohol prohibition was not going to work. Sure, the intelligent freethinkers knew that before it was made law, but listening to them is not popular. It's been close to a century since we tried prohibition of other drugs and it's a failure. It amazes me the way people will continue to support failing ideas in the face of all evidence to the contrary. Must be a religious deal?