Boundaries of the field of expertise Drugs

Core activities

Drugs examination is concerned with samples that are expected to contain:

• Agents listed in the Dutch Opium Act and the European guidelines referred to in the Misuse of Chemicals Prevention Act.
• A substance seen on the drug users market, such as new psychoactive substances and/or a substance that may be covered by the Dutch Medicines Act, such as cutting agents and falsified medicines.
• Or chemicals used in production processes that are not of human origin.

Within the field of expertise of Drugs Analysis and Interpretation a distinction must be made between two categories for registration: Drugs Comparison and Drugs Production. For both categories experts will be able to answer the questions of identification, quantification and trace examination in the chemical-physical examination stage.

In addition experts with a registration for Drugs Comparison are involved with answering questions related to comparative examination in the interpretation stage. Furthermore these experts will be able to answer questions of comparative examination in the chemical-physical examination stage.

Experts with a registration for Drugs Production are involved with answering questions related to production process examination in the interpretation stage. Furthermore these experts will be able to answer the questions of production process examination in the chemical-physical examination stage.

Boundaries of the field of expertis

Experts in the field of expertise of Drugs Analysis and Interpretation must be aware of the opportunities and limitations of their answers to questions concerning trace examinations in the interpretation stage. Experts must be aware that standard equipment and routine methods will not automatically detect and identify all new and previously unknown substances or detect low dosed substances.