Cocaine Test Rapid and Accurate Using ‘Compact Mass Spec’

Cocaine is a tricky drug to test for. Time-consuming laboratory work can accurately determine the presence and amount of cocaine and its byproducts, while quicker portable tests can be inaccurate and give false positives.

But a compact mass-spectrometry can accurately detect levels of cocaine and even metabolites within urine and saliva, according to a new paper by researchers at the University of Surrey.

Surface mass spectrometry is a valuable tool used in many different disciplines – but it has been too expensive and too laboratory-based to be used in a wide range of scenarios, said Mahado Ismail, the lead Surrey researcher.

That could change with the new method of chromatography to make the most of portable mass-spec technologies, he added.

“This new method, which extracts analytes from a surface and separates them using chromatography, has been shown to prove a sensitive, accurate result,” Ismail said.

The research was published this morning in the journal Analytical Methods.

The scientists contend their method using chromatography improves the accuracy rate, and drives down the frequency of false-positives.

“The use of chromatography reduce ion suppression effects and this, used in combination with in-source fragmentation, increases selectivity, thereby allowing high sensitivity to be achieved with a portable and affordable quadrupole mass spectrometer,” the authors write.

The method also makes a cocaine test potentially portable, since the current tools would be able to handle the analytical work. Being able to use an accurate cocaine test at a roadside stop, or in the workplace or in a prison setting, could be a huge breakthrough, they said.

Tests currently on the market are even sold in some drug stores in the U.S. However, their accuracy rates have been disputed.

Complicating the factor is the biology involved. Often, it is not cocaine itself that is detected in any of the analytical methods, it is instead metabolites from the body breaking down the cocaine. With large enough doses, the metabolites can persist in the system for several days. If combined with alcohol, the resulting metabolite (called cocaethylene) can last for almost a week, and causes its own psychoactive effects.

The chromatography improvements could also lead to further breakthroughs with other tests for narcotics, they added.

“Our next step will be to test the efficacy of the system for monitoring other drugs of abuse while we are also looking for follow-on funding to further develop the test,” Ismail added.