Groundbreaking device instantly detects dangerous street drugs, offering hope for harm reduction

(Press-News.org) A portable device that can instantly detect dangerous street drugs at extremely low concentrations has been developed at the University of Bath in the UK.

The device, which is being trialled by drug-checking services in the UK, Norway and New Zealand, can identify substances such as benzodiazepines and synthetic opioids that are difficult to detect with existing mobile technologies and are major contributors to drug overdoses globally.

The device, which is similar to an ultraviolet spectrometer, will allow drugs to be tested cheaply and at volume. Its on-the-spot analysis reveals both the contents of a substance and the concentration of each ingredient. The technology is described today in the scientific journal Analytical Chemistry.

Biochemist Professor Chris Pudney – who leads the team that developed the technology from the Department of Life Sciences at Bath – says the potential life-saving benefits of this invention are considerable. By using the device to reveal the precise composition of an illicit substance, the risks associated with taking unknown or adulterated drugs can be reduced significantly.

Professor Pudney envisions the new machine being deployed in areas where illicit drugs are commonly used, such as at clubs and festivals, as well as in services that provide support and treatment for dependent-drug users.

Testing times Detecting substances at low concentrations is more challenging than identifying larger quantities of highly pure substances. The equipment currently available for this task often requires extensive training and can only be operated by chemists.

By contrast, the device invented by Professor Pudney can be operated by a non-expert, yielding results with the simple press of a button, and can detect drugs at extremely low concentrations. This allows it to determine the potency of a formulation and identify any contamination with undeclared substances. Many ‘red flag’ substances, including synthetic opioids such as nitazenes and fentanyl, are toxic even in minute quantities, and being able to detect them is critical to saving lives.

Professor Pudney said: “Whatever we’re doing at the moment to prevent deaths from drug misuse isn’t working so we need a new kind of service that can be where it’s needed – cheaply, easily and anywhere.

“Our device would support community harm reduction. Telling people not to take drugs doesn’t work, so different strategies are needed. By letting people know exactly what’s in a drug and how strong it is, we can empower them to make safer decisions about whether or not to take it, or to use it in a safer way.”

Drug adulteration Globally, there is a growing problem of people unknowingly taking street drugs that have been mixed with undeclared substances. For instance, illicit pills containing benzodiazepines (which can produce feelings of euphoria, relaxation and calmness in the user) can be contaminated with synthetic opioids, turning them into ultrapotent mixtures that dramatically increase the risk of adverse effects and fatal overdoses.

The rise of potent synthetic drugs has made the landscape of drug use particularly dangerous, essentially presenting people who believe they are taking a known dosage of a known drug with a ‘Russian roulette’ of risk.

Professor Pudney said: “Now, more than ever, there are serious health risks associated with taking all drugs. People may think they have bought something relatively unharmful – perhaps a substance they know well – but the drug they have may in fact be contaminated with a far more dangerous and more addictive substance that could endanger their lives.

“This is why drug checking is so important and so needed. We need simple, instant detection that anyone in a drug and alcohol service can use to support their clients.”

Deaths in England and Wales from drug poisoning have increased year on year, rising from 4,359 in 2018 to 4,907 in 2023 (these figures include both illicit drug use and prescription drug misuse).

Local and international trials The new technology – currently a prototype – is being trialled by drug services both in the UK and internationally.

Devon & Cornwall Police, UK A device acquired by Devon & Cornwall Police (UK) in June 2024 has allowed the force to fast-track suspicious substances linked to near-fatal and fatal overdoses. This lets them provide real-time drug warnings to drug treatment services in the area, rather than waiting for several months for results from forensic drug-detection service providers.

Nick Burnett, drug expert witness for Devon & Cornwall Police, said: “A prime example of this was testing of some oxycodone tablets in 2024 following a death. The tablets were found to contain a nitazene. We were able to put out a drug warning within 36 hours of that death occurring.”

He added that the technology had improved the police’s working relationship with its drug treatment services, especially in relation to information sharing and where necessary the issuing of drug warnings.

The Loop, UK Unlike in New Zealand, drug checking services in the UK require a Home Office license for the possession of controlled drugs to operate legally. To date, The Loop Drug Checking Service is the only community-based drug-checking service in the UK that has been granted a licence. It has been operating in Bristol since 2024, and uses, alongside other analytical technologies, Professor Pudney’s device.

Katy Porter, CEO of The Loop said: “We have been pleased to work alongside the team at the University of Bath to explore the use and potential of the device in drug checking services and for the purpose of reducing drug-related harms. We share the concerns regarding the changing drug market in the UK and working together to ensure drug checking is accessible and available to more people.”

Drug-checking service, New Zealand For two weeks last year, hundreds of drug samples were tested in New Zealand using Professor Pudney’s new device as part of an initiative involving the country’s three front-line drug-checking services: the Needle Exchange Programme, the New Zealand Drug Foundation and KnowYourStuffNZ. New Zealand is one of few countries in the world where drug-checking services are explicitly legal.

KnowYourStuffNZ deputy manager Dr Jez Weston said: “The spectrometers that we use are currently the best tech for mobile drug analysis, but science moves ever on. The University of Bath’s new technology could help us help our clients with better and faster analysis of their samples.”

Drug-checking service, Norway The device is also being trialled by the Association for Safer Drug Policies (ASDP) in Norway. Norway is another country that operates community-based drug checking.

Dagfinn Hessen Paust, chief scientific officer at the ASDP – a leading advocate for harm prevention and evidence-based drug policies in Norway and the Nordics – said: “We use a number of different technologies to check drugs, mostly using infrared spectrometry, which is great for most use cases but not for testing benzodiazepines and very potent, very dangerous opioids. These substances – unlike, say MDMA – are found in very low concentrations in the tablets people consume and cannot be picked up by established devices.

“The new device from Bath is helping us fill this gap – it’s very exciting for us to be trialling this new technology.”

Shining light The new technology from Bath works through a combination of fluorescence and reflectance spectroscopies.

Fluorescence is a technique that involves shining light on a substance and measuring the light that the substance emits in response. Different substances emit light in unique ways, which makes it possible to identify them. Reflectance Spectroscopy is a technique that measures the light bouncing off a substance. The way light is reflected provides information about the substance's properties. The device is trained using a deep-learning algorithm, meaning it is exposed to a library of Nanoparticle Spectroscopy (NPS) light patterns from which it learns to make accurate identifications.

Professor Pudney said: “Our aim is for this device to support drug-checking services, as a means to decrease the harm caused by drugs across different groups. The landscape of drug use is changing rapidly and we hope this tool can fill some of the gaps that are emerging.”

Contributors to this research from the University of Bath included: Dr Alexander Power, Dr Tom Haines (both from the Department of Computer Science), Dr Tom Freeman (from the Department of Psychology), Matthew Gardner, Dr Gyles Cozier, Peter Sunderland, Professor Stephen Husbands, Dr Ian Blagbrough and Dr Rachael Andrews (all from the Department of Life Sciences). Also involved were: Dr Jennifer Scott (University of Bristol), Anca Frinculescu (King’s College London), Trevor Shine (TICTAC Communications Ltd), Dr Gillian Taylor (Teeside University), Dr Caitlyn Norman, Dr Hervé Ménard, Professor Niamh N Daéid (all from the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, University of Dundee), Dr Oliver Sutcliffe (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Dr Richard Bowman (University of Glasgow).

END