Field Detector Being Developed for Ketamine

A drug detection kit, in the final stages of development, identifies the presence of trace amounts of ketamine, a substance often identified as a date-rape drug.

Ketamine in liquid form is used by veterinary surgeons for anesthetizing cattle. It is a strong illicit drug belonging to a class of drugs called "dissociative anesthetics,” which separate perception from sensation. It usually comes as a liquid in small bottles and is generally cooked into a white powder for snorting. At low doses it increases the heart rate and at higher doses it depresses consciousness and breathing. It is extremely dangerous when combined with alcohol, valium, or gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB). Ketamine is particularly problematic because the source of the drug is legal.

IDenta Corporation (Jerusalem, Israel) is developing a kit that is a field drug detector and does not test body fluids such as blood and urine. The kit can detect the presence of as little as 0.5 mg ketamine with 100% accuracy. The kit will reduce the need for testing people, which is not always reliable because there are many methods available today for "dodging tests,” and also because the substance is present for a limited time in body fluids.

"The ketamine identifier is a product with broad applications in the civilian and consumer marketplace, as well as with law enforcement agencies,” reported IDenta CEO Yaacov Shoham, CEO of IDenta. The product was developed by a company co-founder, Baruch Glattstein.



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