THE USE OF MICRO-FOURIER TRANSFORM INFRARED-SPECTROSCOPY FOR THE RAPID IDENTIFICATION OF STREET DRUGS - DETERMINATION OF INTERFERENCE BY COMMON DILUENTS

The technique of Micro-FTIR in conjunction with microcrystal tests has previously been suggested as a rapid means of street drug identificat ion and has been used to identify cocaine, heroin, phencyclidine and a mphetamines unequivocally. A further analysis for commonly encountered drug diluents and adulterants has shown that little or no interferenc e is contributed by these excipient substances at greater than 20% dru g concentrations, but with high concentrations of sugar present a crud e extraction of the drug is required. This technique has been successf ully evaluated on case samples.