Non-invasive Testing for Drugs in Fingerprints to Address an Unmet Need of Coroners

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Each year over 120,000 bodies are released by UK Coroners without toxicology screening. This is due to the inability to take the invasive body fluid/tissue samples required without calling for a costly post-mortem. However, this means that many deaths that may have been caused by intentional or accidental misuse of drugs (such as opiates) go unreported. The applicants, employing technology created from research at the University of East Anglia, has developed a unique technology that allows identification of the recent drug use history from non-invasive fingerprint samples that can be carried out in as little as 10 minutes using a hand-held device. This project proposes to employ this technology to provide Coroners with a cost-effective screening tool for drugs of abuse . The technology also has significant potential for use in emergency medicine, offender management and drug rehabilitation treatment.