UP invents device that can identify new types of party drugs
The University of the Philippines (UP) has invented a device that can instantly identify new types of party drugs in an effort to help combat illegal drug trafficking and abuse.
According to the university’s Drugs of Abuse Research Laboratory (DARL), the unique advanced technology can detect new psychoactive substances or existing psychoactive substances hidden in party drugs and be able to identify them "in real time."
"This new technology will certainly give our law enforcers the upper hand in the fight against the new kinds of recreational drugs proliferating in the market," said UP DARL manager Joanna Toralba.
"Providing public information about these party drugs will boost the campaign against illegal drugs including drug misuse and overdose," she added.
The device is just one of UP DARL's various technologies and methods to assist law enforcement agencies in identifying illegal drugs.
They previously used an advanced analytical technique called the "Liquid Chromatography-Quadrupole Time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry" to analyze new designer drugs in the hair.
The special clinical laboratory for toxicology is also capable of testing 110 compounds of pharmaceuticals, common drugs of abuse, and new psychoactive substances as well as validating samples taken using the point-of-care (POCT) device.
This device is used to detect the presence of new psychoactive substances such as ketamine, synthetic cannabinoids, and synthetic cathinones through urine samples.
J. Prospero de Vera III, chairman of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), praised these actions as an "example of the expertise of the academe at the service of the government."
"We will be utilizing the expertise of UP Manila in pharmaceutical, toxicology, and chemical sciences to help the government better address the drug problem in the country, taking into consideration a public health and human rights approach to the issue," he said.
UP Manila Chancellor Michael Tee meanwhile hopes that UP DARL can also serve as a teaching-learning facility where future experts will train.
"We hope that through this, we can help replicate the expertise in regional centers and other state colleges and universities so they too can assist our government in fighting the proliferation of illegal drugs," he said.
UP DARL was initiated in 2019 through a partnership among the UP Manila College of Pharmacy, College of Medicine and the National Poison Management and Control Center, and the University of California San Francisco (Clinical Toxicology and Environmental Biomonitoring Laboratory), using a grant from the Philippine California Advanced Research Institutes Program of CHED. (with reports from Neil Jayson Servallos)