A Proactive Approach to Reference Material Production for New Psychoactive Substances

The level of uncertainty provided by most forensic laboratories for reported blood alcohol results has been woefully underassessed. Not only is this bad science, but someone’s civil liberties may be at stake.

Forensic laboratories need to revise their procedures for uncertainty assessment in blood alcohol determinations. We explain why.

Mixed-mode cationic exchange (MCX) sorptive tapes combined with direct infusion mass spectrometry enable selective extraction and rapid analysis of cationic compounds in complex samples, such as opioids in saliva.

Scientists have developed a new method for predicting and assessing the source of black inks using direct analysis in real-time mass spectrometry. By applying dimensionality reduction techniques and likelihood ratio analysis, the researchers achieved high accuracy in identifying ink sources, demonstrating the potential of this approach in forensic ink analysis.

The level of uncertainty provided by most forensic laboratories for reported blood alcohol results has been woefully underassessed. Not only is this bad science, but someone’s civil liberties may be at stake.

Method validation processes will need to be refined to better suit forensic laboratories.