A Review On Various Techniques Used For Illicit Drug Detection; Milestone In Pharmacology

Abstract

The use of illicit drugs have tremendously increased from the past years. The number of deaths that have resulted from the higher rate of usage, is quite large. Researchers are running behind to find novel methods for detection that would cut down the abuse and not to catch people. The present study, is concentrated on a review of various methods to determine drugs in human body. The important methods are mass spectroscopy which uses human saliva/fingerprint for detection, Raman spectroscopy-human urine, tandem mass spectroscopy-blood samples, and gas chromatography-hair. Among the methods specified above, Raman spectroscopy and gas chromatography are rapid and portable. In addition, the present work portraits various methods for the analysis with its advantages and disadvantages.

Keywords: Illicit drugs, Self-assembly, Drug detection, Raman Spectroscopy, Human urine