New Test System Helps Officers Identify Illegal Drugs

Visit https://www.nij.gov/topics/forensics/evidence/controlled-substances/Pages/improving-reliability-of-drug-tests-by-officers.aspx to read a brief article about a more reliable test system for police officers to detect and identify illegal drugs. In this report from the National Institute of Justice, researchers looked at transition metal cluster compounds for the fluorescent identification and trace detection of substances of abuse. The resulting test system allows investigators in the field to photograph the fluorescence spectrum with a smartphone and identify the substance through comparison to an online database.