Post by Shadow on Dec 28, 2005 13:41:34 GMT -5
New Scientist link
# 20 December 2005
# NewScientist.com news service
# Rowan Hooper
SUSPICIONS that the internationally recognised field test for cocaine is unreliable have been confirmed by a lab investigation. Not only does the test fail to detect the drug in some samples, it can also wrongly give positive results when no cocaine is present.
The Scott test, introduced in 1973, is used by many police forces as a preliminary test on substances they suspect to be cocaine. A positive result isn't enough to secure a conviction, but it can lead to suspects being detained until a forensic lab completes a detailed analysis using mass spectrometry. Inaccurate results may lead to false arrests and waste investigators' resources.
An alternative, more expensive test is now used by some police forces. But the UN's field manual for drug testing continues to recommend the Scott test.
The reliability of the Scott test has been called into question by reports that it has thrown up positive results from innocuous substances such as powdered milk, parmesan cheese and latex from sports shoes. And last year, three youths in Tokyo were arrested after a substance tested positive for cocaine in the Scott test but later turned out to be a hallucinogenic drug known as foxy-methoxy, when had not then been outlawed in Japan.
# 20 December 2005
# NewScientist.com news service
# Rowan Hooper
SUSPICIONS that the internationally recognised field test for cocaine is unreliable have been confirmed by a lab investigation. Not only does the test fail to detect the drug in some samples, it can also wrongly give positive results when no cocaine is present.
The Scott test, introduced in 1973, is used by many police forces as a preliminary test on substances they suspect to be cocaine. A positive result isn't enough to secure a conviction, but it can lead to suspects being detained until a forensic lab completes a detailed analysis using mass spectrometry. Inaccurate results may lead to false arrests and waste investigators' resources.
An alternative, more expensive test is now used by some police forces. But the UN's field manual for drug testing continues to recommend the Scott test.
The reliability of the Scott test has been called into question by reports that it has thrown up positive results from innocuous substances such as powdered milk, parmesan cheese and latex from sports shoes. And last year, three youths in Tokyo were arrested after a substance tested positive for cocaine in the Scott test but later turned out to be a hallucinogenic drug known as foxy-methoxy, when had not then been outlawed in Japan.