Drug-analysis technology: overview and state of the art

Analytical techniques are available to reliably detect and, if necessary, quantify drugs of abuse and their metabolites in urine. A variety of different immunoassays are likely to remain at the heart of initial screening methods but with an increasing emphasis on confirmation of positive findings by GC-MS. The quality of work in laboratories (which may make considerable financial gain through increased volume of samples) must be guarded by both internal quality assurance and external proficiency testing, but most of all by ensuring that staff are truly forensic toxicologists with adequate credentials and experience. Laboratories must be credible to the courts and to their clients, which is simply not the case today. For the past 20 years, the toxicologist has played an increasingly important role as an ombudsman of public-health issues; this new dimension of professional responsibility has almost frightening proportions. The alarm that is rightly felt in the profession can only be assuaged and brought into perspective by increasing the knowledge base from which toxicological opinions are rendered, and by recognizing that, however critical, the analytical laboratory report is only a part, and never the whole case. Just a few areas of immediate needs have been mentioned, but they are critical, they cannot be avoided, and they must receive appropriate attention very soon.