Development of new sensor to tackle legal highs

A new type of sensor that can detect and analyse legal high drugs on sale at various shops throughout the UK has been developed.

The portable sensor, which has been developed by a team of scientists working at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), has been created because current drug tests are unable to recognise the drugs contained within legal high products. Many legal highs are labelled as glass cleaner or plant food, bearing the wording ‘not for human consumption’ to bypass the law. Legal highs first began appearing in the UK approximately five years ago.

A member of the development team at MMU, Dr Oliver Sutcliffe, said of the sensor: “It will potentially be a first-line field detection for police and other agencies. It would be able to establish, on the spot, whether a substance is an NPS instead of the time-consuming task of lab tests.”

The sensor works by being able to detect the distinctive electrochemical fingerprint of the drug within the legal high product. Such drugs contain cathinones, which are chemicals similar to amphetamines.

Previous tests, such as those used by the police, were simple colour change tests that provided either a positive or a negative result; however, due to the proliferation and ever-changing nature of available legal highs, these tests have been found to be inadequate. The sensor will provide a faster and far more reliable method of testing legal highs.