A NEW potential drug test may be in the offing as researchers from the   Netherlands Forensic Institute, the National Physical Laboratory, King’s College London and Sheffield Hallam University all in the UK, are analysing the fingerprints of patients attending drug treatment services. Led by other researchers at the University of Surrey, the team tested the prints against more commonly used saliva samples to determine whether the two tests correlated.

While previous fingerprint tests have employed similar methods, they have only been able to show whether a person had touched cocaine, and not whether they have actually taken the drug. “When someone has taken cocaine, they excrete traces of benzoylecgonine and methylecgonine as they metabolise the drug, and these chemical indicators are present in fingerprint residue,” said Dr Melanie Bailey of the University of Surrey.

“For our part of the investigations, we sprayed a beam of solvent onto the fingerprint slide (a technique known as Desorption Electrospray Ionisation, or DESI) to determine if these substances were present. DESI has been used for a number of forensic applications, but no other studies have shown it to demonstrate drug use.”

Researchers believe that the applications for this test could be far-reaching. Drug testing is used routinely by probation services, prisons, courts and other law enforcement agencies. However, traditional testing methods have limitations.

“The beauty of the method is that, not only is it non-invasive and more hygienic than testing blood or saliva, it can’t be faked. By the very nature of the test, the identity of the subject is captured within the fingerprint ridge detail itself. It is anticipated that this technology could see the introduction of portable drug tests for law enforcement agencies to use within the next decade.