Forensic Drug Testing

[Gaothaire]

Hi Jack,

If a substance was found by police and suspected to be heroin, what type of testing would the crime lab do to confirm it's heroin?  Could they identify what it's been cut with?"

[Balwant]

Mike,

The police can do field tests to establish probable cause for an arrest.  A few members of a shift would carry a field testing kit with them and in a minute or so the suspected drug would test either positive or negative.

In the lab that would be a different story.  I have never even been inside a crime lab let alone done a drug test.  This is the best that I could come up with but I bet if you played around on Google you would find something better.   http://pathology.ucsf.edu/sfghlab/data/tests/358.html