Drug profiling

Finally, we’re going to look at drug profiling which involves the systematic analysis normally of semi-synthetic or synthetic drugs of abuse.

Drug profiling aims to extract information from the drug sample that can be used to attempt to link the drug seizure to a synthetic production method or to a potential precursor or to examine possible connections between different seizures in order to expose dealer-user networks.

These are by no means easy things to achieve and drug supply and distribution networks are often very complex. Using analytical techniques which determine synthetic impurities whether organic chemical compounds, metals and other elements or variations in the ratios of specific isotopes in compounds all contribute to drug profiling.