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. 2023 Apr 2;12(2):22799036231166313.
doi: 10.1177/22799036231166313. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Fentanyl, etizolam, and beyond: A feasibility study of a community partnership using handheld Raman spectrometry to identify substances in the local illicit drug supply

Casey Grover  1 , Justine How  1 , Reb Close  1
Affiliations

Fentanyl, etizolam, and beyond: A feasibility study of a community partnership using handheld Raman spectrometry to identify substances in the local illicit drug supply

Casey Grover et al. J Public Health Res. .

Abstract

Background: The United States is currently experiencing an unprecedented rise in fatal drug overdoses, which is in part due to the arrival of fentanyl, fentanyl analogs, and other synthetic drugs into the illicit drug supply. Traditional urine drug testing is often unable to detect fentanyl analogs and other novel synthetic drugs, which places physicians and first responders in the difficult position of treating patients who are intoxicated with or overdosing on unknown substances.

Design and methods: We report, as a feasibility study, the development of a novel program to use a handheld Raman spectrometry device in our hospital's Emergency Department to surveil our local illicit drug supply in terms of what substances are being sold and used.

Results: Using our novel program, we were able to detect 27 substances in our illicit drug supply over a 10 month period, including fentanyl analogues. We shared, through our local opioid safety coalition, real-time information to first responders, substance use treatment programs, and physicians about the novel substances we detected using the handheld Raman spectrometer.

Conclusions: A community partnership of using handheld Raman spectrometry in our hospital's Emergency Department was successful in providing information to health care providers about novel substances in our illicit drug market. Additionally, the implementation of this program improved collaboration between local health care providers and local law enforcement.

Keywords: Overdose; Raman spectrometry; community partnership; illicit drug supply.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Handheld mass spectrometer showing the result of an analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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