There are a wide variety of characterization techniques which may be used to identify drugs of abuse, including infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, gas chromatography, x-ray diffractometry, immunoassays and urine dipstick tests. FT-IR spectroscopy provides one of the best solutions for the analysis of drugs as it has the ability to easily discriminate between drug compounds as well as being non-destructive.
This application note describes how the PerkinElmer Spectrum Two infrared spectrometer and TICTAC drugs of abuse spectral library offer a fast, transportable, and non-destructive method for the fast identification of illicit drug substances.