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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.
Also to detect anyone who has any money, for confiscation of evidence of course.
lets spend billions upon billions to stop people from doing things to themselves, not even taking the 4th amendment into consideration
Im not condoning abuse, but im also not condoning the absurd spending that we as a planet have done "for the children"
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Congress will likely forbid this technology in the USA, lest it interfere with their favorite past time.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
How sensitive is this test? From what I understand, a tremendous percentage of currency is 'tainted' with the residue of one illicit substance or another. This may wind up just being a test to see if someone has handled money recently.
An internal system operation returned the error "The operation completed successfully.".
So are we to assume consumption that's not abusive won't leave detectable metabolites? Or, are the researchers assuming all use is abuse? And, can you imagine how much this test costs?
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wouldn't handling money give false positives?
...cocaine can be detected by the excreted metabolites...resulting from abuse of the drug.
What about those that don't abuse cocaine, but use it responsibly?
As opposed to the proper use of the drug?
Why choose the term abuse, instead of use or consumption?
So, when do we start testing every politician?
I'm a heavy user infact, but I've never abused it. I use it exactly how its intended - I snort it up my nose.
You keep using that word abuse of the drug.
Somewhat interesting is the joint effort between a British and Dutch university team.
As it is legal in their country the Dutch had to do the sniffing and the Brits did the detection of the resulting metabolites?
It is good science, for sure.
For forensic evidence it is really good as this cannot come from just touching some US Dollar notes, you got to at least eat and digest them.
But this will only be interesting once it can detect if a person is under the influence of the drug, merely punishing on past use has only one winner, the privatised penal institutions.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
What kind of abuse does this new method detect? Talkum substitute? Scrubbing powder? Disinfectant? Or rather its intended, designated illegal-but-certainly-non-abusive employment as the psychoactive, addictive drug it happens to be.
You can abuse a screwdriver to kill somebody; using a gun for the same purpose is still illegal in most circumstances, but it would not be "gun abuse".
ignatius
Note that this method does NOT work with a printed copy of the fingerprint, only the original fingerprint itself. That is because it detects chemicals which are sweated out onto the skin. and when the finger is pressed to the paper, the sweat is pressed onto the paper. The cocaine does NOT change the shape of the swirls; it only adds invisible chemicals to the sweat and ink on the paper.
Almost everything you tthink of as a fingerprint is actually a photographic copy of a fingerprint, and the method does not detect anything from the copy. So police can use it on suspects, but you can't look at Barack Obama's published fingerprint in the New Yrok Times to see what he's been swallowing recently.
ok...don't excrete. inhale.
What did the five fingers say to the face?
- Rick James
Don't sweat it. Seriously, don't. Nowadays they can tell all kinds of stuff from your sweat.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
What a waste of time and money, jailing people $40,000/yr.
Do you want to pay for that?
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
I see no reason why these researchers shouldn't be pilloried. Taking state money to improve methods of spying on the citizenry is not a positive act.
You're forgetting the for-profit civil forfeiture power they have.
I guarantee you someone is working a spreadsheet figuring out if they buy a bunch of high tech scanners and can get more people with positive results they can seize a lot more stuff to pay for it.
Test positive? We'll take everything you have on you, your car and possibly your house and we can do it all now without any court approving it. You have to prove to us that it's not ill-gotten gains.
Current detection systems already have enough false positives, eating some poppie seed muffins/bread, taking some ibuprofen, etc will trip some tests. This test sounds like it uses much smaller samples so I would imagine it would be far more susceptible. And as others have noted most money has trace amounts of various drugs (cocaine, heroin, morphine, etc) adding a completely innocent vector for false positives. The entire concept of trace drug testing is flawed, testing for significant recent usage MIGHT have some reasoning but these tests looking for usage days, weeks or even months out are foolish, destructive and pointless.
Now with automatic cocaine detected via TouchID. :)
Is a political slogan for feeble-minded people. Some doled out tax money was needed after the USSR collapsed 30 years ago to keep defense contractors afloat.
Would the drug cartels like to change the current situation with the drugs being illegal? Massive profits with no taxes, and where uncooperative individuals are expected to be found in a ditch face down?
I bet the status quo is good for business.
Almost all people that I know never touch coke any more. Also here seems to be out of favour with the current going to clubs generation/younger generation.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
be sure now to get a new stamp pad of ink each time you get finger printed.
Oh and make sure you get the finger print tech who holds your fingers and rolls them over the card drug tested. Go ahead and insist on that the next time you are fingerprinted.
Let me know how that works. LOL
I can listen to JJ Cale and detect cocaine use just from the lyrics of the song! How cool is that?
The War on (some non-patentable, not pushed by Big Pharma) Drugs is a failure.
Ah, but I disagree. Its purpose is manifold, but the two biggies are the erosion of the constitution to keep the prison/security state growing and fed, and the profits of Big Pharma.
This sad state of affairs has been slowly engineered over decades by some very wealthy and influential people as a goal to increase their power and wealth.
It's not a failure - it's a wild success. Sucks that you and I aren't on that list of winners though.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
What we now need is a spray containing those two critters in just the right proportions...
How does the test distinguish between use and abuse? A certainly level of cocaine usage is arguably not abuse.
SURELY NOT!!!!!
That's one smart test, if it can tell the difference between use and 'abuse', the word the article likes to use. Sorry, abuse.
Just make sure the tested person have not bathed in the river Po, downstream from Milan at anytime recently.
Almost all money has had contact with Cocaine and many other street drugs. Since the drugs are already on the money, detecting them in fingerprints may not indicate a user, just a money handler which is NOT a crime anywhere.
Could somebody use a spectrometer, or modified spectrometer to analyze from afar a "chem-trail"? It's about time somebody debunks the lunatics (lunatics being the conspiracy-theorists or the deniers-overlords).
2cts