Fingerprint drug testing technology leaps forward

Photo Credit: undark.com

Lab testing with paper spray mass spectrometry is able to analyze and detect chemicals left behind in fingerprints. Traces of sweat left behind in the ridges of fingerprints can include traces of whatever substances the fingers have touched. Traces of drugs have been found to be surprisingly common in fingerprints of the general population.

In testing by the University of Surrey, with partners from the Netherlands Forensic Institute and Intelligent Fingerprinting, 13% of verified non-drug users tested were found to traces of cocaine in their fingerprints! The testing methodology is so sensitive (to the tens of pictograms, or 0.00000000001g) that it can detect trace amounts of cocaine transferred from a banknote or other contaminated surface. A drug user would have a much higher (100X or more) amount of cocaine in their fingerprint residue, so the test can tell drug users and non-users apart.

An exciting possibility for the future of medical testing is the modification of fingerprint testing technology to detect therapeutic drugs. New fingerprint testing can even detect drugs — prescription or otherwise — that a person has ingested. For patients being treated for epilepsy, diabetes, heart conditions or psychosis, fingerprint testing would be an easy and convenient way to test whether prescribed drugs were being take regularly and absorbed properly.

Intelligent Fingerprinting (Cambridge, UK) has developed the world’s first portable fingerprint-based drug detection system. It works using antibodies — similar to a home pregnancy test — to test for specific classes of drugs such as opiates, amphetamines, cocaine and THC (marijuana). The portable fingerprint testing device is currently being used in drug treatment centers, and is being pilot tested by medical examiners in the UK to determine the cause of death.

The company believes the portable test will become very popular in law enforcement — police, probation, prisons, and likely, eventually, roadside testing. Intelligent Fingerprinting  is now marketing the portable fingerprint test in the US and Canada. The popularity and wide spread growth of this type of testing is raising privacy and consent issues. Technology moves fast, and thoughtful ethical and legal resolutions evolve slowly.



The Hidden Data in Your Fingertips

By Melanie Bailey, April 27, 2018, for The Conversation US, published on ScientificAmerican.com


First large-scale study of cocaine users leads to breakthrough in drug testing

Published Sept. 21, 2017, by the University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK 


Fingerprint Scanning Technology Leaps Forward, But to What End?

By Rod McCullom, April 11,2018,  for UNDARK.org


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