Unbelievable facts
Fingerprints are all that is needed to determine whether a person is under the influence of drugs or not.
Paul Yates, a specialist at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, and colleagues have developed a portable device that can be used by police to detect decay products drugs that are excreted from the body through sweat on the hands.
The device is coated with gold nanoparticles with special antibodies that are sensitive to fingerprints. Antibodies interact with specific antigens in fingerprint metabolites. The fluorescent colors that antibodies possess will show the presence of certain metabolites. This is the first time that the technology has been used to detect nicotine, and has shown excellent results. It is currently used to obtain information about the presence of a number of narcotic drugs in the human body, including cocaine, methadone and hashish.
“It is difficult to prove that, for example, a driver of a vehicle is under the influence of drugs, as all previous tests were invasive and not sensitive enough,” says Yates. The new device can even detect nanograms of metabolites within minutes. The new technology was unveiled last week in London at the International Crime Science Conference.