preview

Drug Abuse And Illegal Drugs

Decent Essays

The amount of drug abuse in the United States is at an all time high. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “since 2000, the rate of deaths from drug overdoses has increased 137%, including a 200% increase in the rate of overdose deaths involving opioids and heroin (Rudd, Aleshire, Zibbell, & Gladden, 2016). With drug use on the rise, the chance of illegal substances being involved at a crime scene is common.
When potential illegal substances are found at a crime scene, the substance must be tested by a forensic chemist to determine whether it is an illegal drug. A forensic chemist uses scientific findings to help investigators determine whether the material submitted contains an illegal substance; an illegal drug is defined as a substance that causes addiction, habituation, or a marked change in consciousness, has limited or no medical use and is listed on one of the five schedules within the Controlled Substances Act (Rodriguez-Cruz, Lothridge, & Ring). The forensic chemist uses presumptive tests and confirmatory tests to identify which drugs is in a particular specimen. Presumptive tests is when a specimen is subjected to a series of reagents that yield characteristic colors for commonly encountered drugs (Becker & Dutelle, 2013, p. 391). Whereas confirmatory tests use instrumental analysis to positively identify the substance in question (Rodriguez-Cruz, Lothridge, & Ring). Even though both presumptive tests and confirmatory tests are used by forensic chemists, the most effective way to identify drugs is by using confirmatory tests.
One of the most common and preferred type of confirmatory test is the microcrystalline test. The microcrystalline test involves dissolving a small amount of the sample in a solution on a microscope slide and letting the material form crystals. The test reagents chosen to induce development of specific microcrystals with the sample and control are highly specific because the crystals formed are a direct consequence of the reagent choice (Harpner, Powell, & Pijl, 2017). The way substances will crystalize in a specific manner allows forensic chemists to identify components of a sample by viewing the crystals under a light microscope (Harpner, Powell, &

Get Access