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Fingerprints reveal drug use

By | July 26, 2011, 10:02 PM PDT

Your fingerprint can now reveal whether or not you’re under the influence of drugs. And in mere minutes.

Holy cow. This new handheld device can be used by police to detect the broken down byproducts from drugs that end up excreted through the sweat pores in your fingertips, New Scientist reports.

The new tech was developed by Paul Yates and colleagues from Intelligent Fingerprinting, originally based out of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.

  1. The device applies gold nanoparticles coated with antibodies (the proteins used by the immune system to neutralize invaders) to a fingerprint.
  2. More specifically, antibodies stick to antigens (the foreign molecules that trigger immune responses). And those antigens are on specific metabolites, the byproducts of metabolism.
  3. Fluorescent dyes attached to the antibodies are used to highlight the presence of any metabolites of drugs.

The technique – called illicit drug assays – was first used to detect nicotine, but now works on a range of drugs, including cocaine, methadone, and cannabis.

Until now, according to Yates, it’s hard to prove that someone is driving under the influence. Existing drug driving tests are invasive, can be easily contaminated, or aren’t sensitive enough.

The new device, on the other hand, could detect nanograms of metabolites in minutes, he says. It should be available this year.

The work was announced at the University College London International Crime Science Conference in London this month.

Via New Scientist.

Image: Intelligent Fingerprinting

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Janet Fang

About Janet Fang

Janet Fang is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Janet Fang

Janet Fang
Contributing Editor

Janet Fang has written for Nature, Discover and the Point Reyes Light. She is currently a lab technician at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. She holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University. She is based in New York.

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Janet Fang

Janet Fang

Janet does not have financial holdings that would influence how or what she covers.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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+8 Votes
+ -
Drug Testing Government Officials made easy!
YES!

Finally, a way to drug test public officials routinely, cheaply and effectively.

No more legislators drunk while voting. No congressmen high on abused prescription drugs creating laws and spending hundreds of billions.

No doped up Judges.

The only problem I can see, is verifying that it came from the sweat, and not from the money you handled today....

Drug Test All Public Officials Daily--let's fight the War on Drugs to Win!

Test the people who can hurt us most,
test them often at their posts.

You shouldn't drive while you're impaired,
nor should you guide a country that's despaired.

petition at:
http://signon.org/sign/drug-test-congress?source=c.url&r_by=353667
Posted by wizoddg
27th Jul 2011
+1 Vote
+ -
irinafonts
It' good resource. But they have to improve it to avoid distorted results. I agreed with you.
Posted by Irinafonts
Updated - 27th Jul 2011
+1 Vote
+ -
Simple Remedy
To insure that a person is being tested for what's in their sweat & not 'the money you handled today', the answer is simple - wash the hands, dry them on a paper towel, wait a few minutes (in view of the tester techs), & test.
Posted by Indian.Maid
30th Jul 2011
+2 Votes
+ -
Not just police
This gadget, if not overly expensive, is likely to become very popular for testing employees for drug use.
Posted by hoodedswan
27th Jul 2011
+2 Votes
+ -
True
On one hand it is an invasion of privacy (whatever this means anymore)and on the other hand it can protect the employer from problems caused by on the job drug use. Some alcoholics can disguise drinking well enough that the first indication the employer has that the employee is alcoholic is when they have an accident on the job.
Posted by sboverie
28th Jul 2011
+4 Votes
+ -
Ah-hah! Another way to trample rights
Let's see, first there's the money line: Who's making a mint off the manufacture and distribution of these 'testing devices"...wait...it's coming out of our taxes to aid our police? Possibly. What's for sure is we pee on demand and live as children not trusted to make judgments about our own bodies. When...when will this harassment stop?
Posted by KarrasB
27th Jul 2011
+1 Vote
+ -
It's Not About Your Own Body
It's about responsible behavior and not endangering everyone else with your stupidity. You only get 1 brain. Obviously yours doesn't work all that well to begin with. The answer is obvious then - avoid dope, dope.
Posted by Indian.Maid
30th Jul 2011
+1 Vote
+ -
False Positives
If this test is designed to look for the same metabolites that the current drug tests do, then there is still a possiblility for false positive results. There are some over the counter medications that can trigger a false positive on current tests.

Another problem with detecting metabolites is some drugs cause the body to excrete metabolites for weeks or months; this may not indicate current intoxication but recent use with the suspect being sober at time of test.
Posted by sboverie
27th Jul 2011
0 Votes
+ -
You Use, You Lose
It doesn't matter 'when' someone uses drugs; it matters "that" they use drugs. Those materials aren't called 'dope' for no reason - and you only get 1 brain. It doesn't work all that well in most people to begin with; they don't 'need' to compromise its operating ability further. My company will have this as fast as I can push it thru when it's on the market. We who live clean don't need to pay for the stupidity of those who dope.
Posted by Indian.Maid
30th Jul 2011
+1 Vote
+ -
BOOOOOOOOOOOO
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO lol this is just going to over crowded the jail system then all those stupie programs in the long run the Gov is going to go broke lol
Posted by elspeedy1
27th Jul 2011
+1 Vote
+ -
Drug industrial complex.....
Will just love this device. What better way to increase the prison population, overwhelm the court system and further the nanny state.
Posted by kevins198
28th Jul 2011
+1 Vote
+ -
Prevention
Just the thought of getting busted on the job should be an incentive to changing your behavior. If a doper is stupid enough to continue this practice, then they should be exposed and get dealt with. They might not go to jail, but their employment can be terminated. The choice is theirs. Fair enough?
Posted by Ray Cologne
29th Jul 2011
+1 Vote
+ -
Fantastic!
A wonderful tool for employers, too - imagine not having to send the employee to a lab for testing, but it can be done in the field right now. No more requests to clean people to piddle in the cup by the dirty people - who cost us all hugely. The sooner this is in the marketplace for us, the better! Gives greater security to the employees who are clean, & enables cleaning out the losers - who cost us amazing amounts of money to downtime, 'accidents', etc. I rattle my tongue for this!
Posted by Indian.Maid
30th Jul 2011
+1 Vote
+ -
Not Too Far
If the test is fast, simple, & accurate, & given the astronomical cost of dope use, it's a godsend. Science - for once - has not gone too far.
Posted by Indian.Maid
30th Jul 2011
+1 Vote
+ -
Thank you very much
Well done! Thank you very much for professional templates and community edition
sesli chat sesli sohbet
Posted by yarinsiz
Updated - 26th Aug 2011
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