Examination of Firearms Review: 2007 to 2010 - Interpol

new light on the investigation of alcohol use: Extension of the detection time for
alcohol consumption; differentiation of antemortem alcohol use vs. postmortem
generation due to decomposition; chronic vs. social drinking, etc. It would be
expected that more laboratories will include alcohol biomarker testing in their
routine toxicological screening protocols in order to provide additional
information when required.
Alternative matrices for analysis of drugs and poisons are becoming popular in
forensic toxicology. Promising improvements in the reliability of the oral-fluid
drug screening devices, particularly for the detection of cocaine and more
recently cannabinoids for DUID, are noted. The scope of drug detection for the
device, however, is limited and needs to be extended to other common drugs
of abuse such as ketamine (which is extensively abused in some Asian
countries). While blood is still regarded as the specimen of choice, the use of
oral fluid either for roadside testing or even as evidence for prosecution after
laboratory confirmation of DUID, is increasing. The analysis of hair is
escalating in various routine drug monitoring programs such as driving license
re-granting, proof of drug abstinence, and drug-related crimes such as DFSA.
It should be noted that interpretation of hair test results is difficult due to
complicated disposition mechanisms; issues of external contamination; and
limited research available, particularly those in controlled clinical studies. As
such, more background studies such as controlled administration at clinical
settings and statistical evaluation of hair drug testing results from drug users,
are needed.
The rapid emergence of new drugs of abuse, such as synthetic cannabinoids
and mephedrone, continues to be one of the major challenges to toxicologists,
as the unavailability of reference standards (particularly for the corresponding
metabolites) has hindered the timely development of effective analytical
methods for their identification. While toxicity data for the new drugs are
lacking, background studies utilizing data derived from animal models are
useful in assessing the potential risk to humans, and to determine what
analytes need to be included in systematic toxicological analysis. This
information is also valuable to assist governments, medical practitioners, and
the pharmaceutical industry in formulating policies to reduce the risk to the
general public.
The harmonization of quality assurance programs are seen in many toxicology
laboratories in the adoption of the ISO/IEC 17025 requirements; for instance,
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