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Advancements in Drug Detection: The RaDAR Program at NIST

At the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), chemist Ed Sisco and his team have pioneered techniques aimed at detecting minute quantities of drugs, explosives, and potentially hazardous materials. These advancements serve to enhance the safety of law enforcement and first responders who handle these materials in the field. Sisco’s lab has improved upon a technology known as DART (direct analysis in real time) mass spectrometry, a system that the U.S. Transportation Security Administration utilizes to identify explosives by simply swiping a person’s hand. Now, this cutting-edge technique can analyze minute residues collected from crime scenes, allowing officials to avoid direct contact with potentially harmful substances contained in bags or materials.

Recognizing the potential benefits, Sisco realized that first responders and volunteers operating at needle exchange sites could leverage these same techniques to safely collect drug residues from various paraphernalia without needing immediate authorization or intervention from law enforcement. This innovation allows for safer sample collection, which can subsequently be mailed to NIST’s facility in Maryland for analysis. Remarkably, the processing time for results has been significantly reduced, enabling a complete report within one to two hours instead of the previous 10 to 30 minutes. The integration of advanced algorithms has facilitated this improvement by eliminating the need for lengthy separation of compounds prior to analysis.

The Rapid Drug Analysis and Research (RaDAR) initiative commenced as a pilot program in October 2021 and has yielded critical data almost from the outset. Initial findings revealed the presence of xylazine, a veterinary sedative tied to severe health complications among users, in approximately 80% of the opioid samples analyzed.

Sisco notes the importance of this discovery: “Forensic labs typically focus on illegal substances, often overlooking compounds that, while not illegal, can pose significant dangers. Xylazine may not be a controlled substance, but it results in severe injuries, sometimes necessitating amputations, and it intensifies the risks associated with other drugs.” In addition to detecting well-known substances like xylazine, fentanyl, and the sedative medetomidine, NIST’s advancements can identify trace amounts of a variety of harmful adulterants that can infiltrate the drug supply, including common over-the-counter medications, rat poison, and local anesthetics such as lidocaine.

The chemical composition of street fentanyl continues to evolve, and variations in molecular structure can heighten its lethality. To combat this, Sisco’s team has developed novel methods for detecting “analogues”—compounds that mimic the chemical structure of fentanyl and its relatives.

The RaDAR program has broadened its scope, now collaborating with over 65 sites across 14 states, including public health entities, law enforcement agencies, forensic science labs, and customs authorities. Sisco’s lab routinely processes between 700 to 1,000 samples monthly, with a significant 85% of these samples originating from public health organizations advocating for harm reduction, which is a strategy aimed at minimizing negative drug use consequences for individuals who have not yet decided to cease their substance use.

Jason Bienert, a wound-care nurse at Johns Hopkins and a former volunteer at a harm-reduction nonprofit in rural Maryland, became involved with the RaDAR program in the spring of 2024. “Xylazine has surged in prevalence here,” he recounts, noting that many of his patients wanted to ascertain the contents of their drugs, primarily to determine the presence of xylazine. As data began to emerge, Bienert describes a competitive atmosphere: “It became a race to see how many samples we could collect.” Weekly, he submitted around 14 samples, meticulously organizing the identified substances on a dry-erase board using drug logos to categorize them by their respective compounds: heroin, fentanyl, xylazine, and others.

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