Illicit Drug Analysis in the Field with a Portable Instrument “Toolkit”

Portable instruments offer numerous advantages for combatting the illicit drug market in the field. Portable spectrometers have detection, identification, and analysis capabilities that provide valuable investigative and adjudicative information about a sample which can be used on its own or to inform further evidence selection, preservation, and collection. The real-time data provided by portable instruments can be of particular value to first responders given the modern dynamic illicit drug landscape which contains highly dangerous and new psychoactive substances (NPS), including fentanyl-related substances. Still, given the diversity of commercially available portable instruments for illicit drug identification, there remains questions regarding which portable technologies are best and what are the best practices for their implementation in the field.

This research evaluated 7 different field portable methods for the analysis of 38 adjudicated seized illicit drug samples, representing a range of illicit drug products including but not limited to cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and NPSs. The technologies included in this study included (1) field color tests, (2) a portable FT-IR spectrometer, (3) a handheld Raman spectrometer with a 1064 nm laser, (4) a handheld NIR spectrometer; (5) a portable GC-MS with a quadrupole mass analyzer, (6) a portable GC-MS with an ion-trap mass analyzer, (7) and a portable HPMS. Samples were also analyzed using traditional laboratory benchtop GC-MS and FT-IR instrumentation, for comparison. This research demonstrated the reliable detection and identification of both bulk and trace components of seized illicit drugs when at least two field deployable devices are employed. Since multiple instruments can be used in combination to achieve these results, a “toolkit” approach is recommended, which provides flexibility for use by agencies with a range of resources and is consistent with recommendations by the SWGDRUG and ASTM.