Forensic scientists in Taiwan have developed a portable testing kit for police to quickly identify illegal synthetic drugs, and have shared it with 15 other countries, the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) said yesterday.
The drug testing kit for multiple types of chemical compounds can provide results in five minutes with an accuracy of 95 percent, MJIB Forensic Science Division officer Yen Yao-te (顏堯德) said.
The kit uses fluorescent nanomaterials that change color when coming into contact with the active compounds in drugs ranging from heroin and cocaine to ketamine and nimetazepam, Yen told a news conference at the ministry in Taipei.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Yen, who has a doctorate in chemistry from National Taiwan University, led the division in creating the testing kit.
“It was done entirely in-house,” he said.
A quick result is obtained using the portable kit by shining a fluorescent light on solutions in small test tubes, Yen said, adding that it is much faster than sending suspicious materials in pouches to laboratories for testing with a turnaround time of at least one day.
The portable kits are also inexpensive to produce at about NT$300 per unit and are an improvement on portable systems used by other countries, he said.
The methodology for producing the kit has been published in Forensic Science International, Advanced Materials Technologies, Sensors and Actuators, and other international journals.
Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) said the kit is an excellent new tool for combating drug smuggling from foreign countries, as the ministry and law enforcement agencies are striving to prevent drugs from reaching schools.
Chen said the kit also helped in promoting friendly ties, as the new kits have already been presented as gifts to 15 countries thus far, including Taiwan’s diplomatic allies Paraguay, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Nauru and Palau.
The ministry has also held talks and given the new kits to the justice ministries of Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, India and Myanmar, Chen said.
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