New Drug Test Detects Cocaine Use with Your Fingerprint

Researchers may be able to tell whether or not someone uses drugs simply by using their fingerprint. Scientists have created a new non-invasive test that can detect cocaine use through a person's fingerprint.

The researchers used different types of an analytical chemistry technique known as mass spectrometry in order to analyze the fingerprints of patients attending drug treatment services. They tested these prints against more commonly used saliva samples in order to see whether the two tests correlated. While previous fingerprint tests have employed similar methods, they have been able to show whether a person had touched cocaine, and not whether they have actually taken the drug.

"When someone has taken cocaine, they excrete traces of benzoylecgonine and methylecgonine as they metabolized the drug, and these chemical indicators are present in the fingerprint residue," said Melanie Bailey, one of the researchers, in a news release. "For our part of the investigations, we sprayed a beam of solvent onto the fingerprint side (a technique knowns as Desorption Electrospray Ionization, or DESI) to determine if these substances were present. DESI has been used for a number of forensic applications, but no other studies have shown it to demonstrate drug use."

This new test could be huge when it comes to future applications. Drug testing is used routinely by probation services, prisons, courts and other law enforcement agencies. Using this new fingerprint test could help streamline the process and is far more hygienic than testing blood or saliva. Not only that, but this new test can't be faked.

The findings are published in the journal The Analyst.

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