Specific markers for impairment due to alcohol consumption have been set and alcohol concentration in the breath is easily determined by non-invasive field tests. However, intoxication and thus, impairment indicators from other types of drugs are less facile to determine. This is due in part to a dearth of fundamental property data and a lack of measurement infrastructure for difficult to detect or study drugs and drug metabolites. These compounds may be difficult to detect because of their chemistry, their concentrations, or how they are metabolized in the body. We aim to aid law enforcement personnel in ascertaining recent drug abuse by developing the measurement infrastructure to acquire fundamental property data related to the capture and release of difficult to detect drugs or drug metabolites. We will then design, develop, and characterize unique sampling methods based on fundamental property data for drugs of abuse. Ultimately, we aim to have a field-deployable tool to reliably determine difficult to detect drug abuse.

References

Lovestead TM, Bruno TJ: Analytical Chemistry 82(13): 5621-5627, 2010

Lovestead TM, Bruno TJ: Forensic Science International 204: 156-161, 2011