Forensic technology could trace drugs to point of manufacture

Researchers at Strathclyde University are focusing on a class of substances called cathinones, often sold and labelled as bath salts, plant food and incense.

They mimic the effects of illegal drugs such as amphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy, but have subtly different molecular structures.

This makes them difficult to identify based on established techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), gas chromatography and ultraviolet and infrared detection.

Over the past couple of years, the Strathclyde team has built up a catalogue of pure reference standards of designer drugs based on variations of mephedrone. But, as project lead Dr Oliver Sutcliffe of Strathclyde explained to The Engineer, this doesn’t address the route of the problem.

‘With the drugs trade you are always playing catch-up, because as soon as you ban a substance, three more will spring up in its place.

‘A lot of these clandestine laboratories are just handle turning — all they’re are doing is saying “let’s just change this part of the molecule”. They don’t care about the activity; they’re not doing a drug-discovery process here.’