B&W Tek TacticID for Narcotics Identification
Introduction
Law enforcement officers responsible for reducing narcotics trafficking and drug abuse face more challenges than ever before. New drugs are appearing at an alarming rate and the global drug problem is spiraling out of control.
Today, the legal process from arrest to prosecution can be lengthy and quite costly to taxpayers. After an arrest, narcotic-specific test kits are typically used by law enforcement to obtain a positive indication for presumptive evidence. However, for new and emerging drugs, specific test kits may not be available yet While narcotic-specific kits can be used in the field or at a police station, seized samples are subsequently sent to a state laboratory for confirmatory testing. Overburdened laboratories may require weeks or even months before test results reach the prosecutor`s hands. The burden and stress placed on chemists to process samples as quickly as possible can be substantial.
Confirmatory analytical techniques that are relied on for analysis are now being miniaturized and simplified and are making their way into field instrumentation. The transition from lab-based to field-based analyzers allows users to conduct the same reliable measurements at the point of arrest, reducing the burden on crime labs and accelerating the prosecution process. One of the most common analytical techniques transitioning from the laboratory to the field is Raman spectroscopy.