Drug/narcotics

The field of drug analysis can be divided into two different sub areas: basic drug analysis and complex drug analysis. The main goal of basic drug analysis is to determine if a potential drug sample (e.g. a powder or tablet) contains a compound (or compounds) which is listed under the Dutch opium law. Complex drug analysis mainly involves the analysis of drugs and drug related compounds at trace levels (e.g. residue of drug in a suitcase), those that are dissolved/added to complex matrices, as well as drug profiling. In our laboratory, we routinely analyze more than 100 actual street drug samples (cocaine, heroin, cannabis, Ecstasy, Speed, Ketamine, 2CB, GHB, etc) per week. Our analysis involves the identification and quantification of the active compounds that are found. The structure of unknown compounds, such as new designer drugs, are elucidated using several different analytical techniques which include GC-MS, LC-MS, IR and NMR.