Detecting Drugs in Saliva

For law enforcement and medical professionals, rapid detection of illicit and harmful drugs saves time, resources and even lives. Raman spectroscopy is a well-established method for substance identification, but until now has not been practical for human intoxication testing. Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) substrates have reduced sensitivity and cost barriers, allowing Raman to be successfully applied to noninvasive testing of trace concentrations of drugs in saliva.