NEW PR ON CDEX Jul 21, 2006 (The Arizona Daily Star - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via
COMTEX) -- A local company is poised to introduce a new kind of point and shoot
-- one that picks up the faintest signs of drugs on any surface.
CDEX Inc., which has its manufacturing and research operations in Tucson, has
filed for a patent for a "portable, hand-held methamphetamine and illicit drug
detector," a device that can scan for trace amounts of meth and other drugs
using ultraviolet light.
While the science behind finding drugs with ultraviolet light is nothing new,
company officials said, this "meth gun" is the first product to make the
technology portable.
"Currently, police have little hope in determining trace amounts of a drug,"
said Chuck Foster, director of business development for homeland security
products. "This device changes all that."
The meth gun is about the size of police officer's radar gun and works in a
similar way, Foster said.
The device works by transmitting UV radiation at a surface, causing any
chemicals to release their "spectral fingerprints." It's a form of spectroscopy.
When a chemical is exposed to UV radiation and releases its signature, the meth
gun picks that up, CDEX scientists said.
This allows the meth gun to instantly scan for meth on a surface.
"We see this as an investigative aid," Foster said. "If I had been ingesting
cocaine and then wiped it off, this unit would be able to identify the cocaine
on that table or on my clothes."
To determine if clothing or a table has contained meth or other drugs, police
conduct chemical field tests. These destroy the piece of evidence and can test
only for one drug at a time, Foster said.
Because the meth gun's technology has never been used at crime scenes before, it
will have to face court challenges to its admissibility, said Tucson Police Sgt.
Mark Garcia, who works in the department's narcotics unit. Like the radar gun,
the meth gun will probably have to go through lengthy use in the field.
"Something like that will have to go through all the legal hurdles of
acceptance," Garcia said.
The chemical field tests used by police have been ruled admissible in court, he
said.
The product does interest him though, he said.
"It could be very helpful in meth cleanup," Garcia said.
CDEX, which has its executive offices in Rockville, Md., will put prototypes
into field tests on the East Coast starting in August and plans to begin sale of
the gun by March.
The devices being field-tested will test only for meth, but the mass-produced
devices will test for meth, cocaine, marijuana, heroin and peroxide-based
explosives -- which are similar chemically to meth, company officials said.
"They don't have to know what drug they are looking for," Foster said.
The company plans on manufacturing the device in Tucson.
The impact of this device is multifaceted, company officials said. Police
officers would no longer have to physically handle the drugs to test them, and
they could keep meth and other dangerous substances away from officers' skin.
Also, large quantities of drugs are often destroyed by suspects when police
arrive, and there might not be physical evidence visible to the naked eye.
Officers "no longer have to guess what materials they are dealing with," Foster
said. "They can know from a safer distance what a chemical is and know how to
deal with it."
Also, the product can help clean up former meth lab sites.
"By using it on surfaces during a meth cleanup, you can tell if you've done a
good job," said Wade Poteet , a former University of Arizona scientist who now
works at CDEX.
The battery-powered device will cost under $10,000 when it debuts, said Jerry
Blair, CDEX's director of healthcare marketing. Future models will be about the
size of two cell phones with a color LCD display.
Desktop units made by competitors, which cannot be brought to a crime scene,
cost $30,000 to $50,000, Blair said.
The meth gun could eventually cost no more than $1,500 a unit after the
technology is further improved, Poteet said.
The company has no firm orders for the meth gun yet, but police departments have
expressed interest, Blair said. It is possible the meth gun, like the radar gun,
could be a standard issue for any patrol car.
CDEX was founded in 2001 and does all its primary research in its Tucson
laboratory at 4555 S. Palo Verde Road.
The company's main product is called ValiMed, a desktop device that validates
prescriptions drugs found in IV bags to make sure the right drug is being
administered. It uses the same spectral signature the meth gun will use.
--Contact reporter Ken Sweet at 307-0579 or ksweet@azstarnet.com.
By Ken Sweet
Copyright
(c) 2006, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
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