The Criminal Evidence Department at the General Department of Security and Ports Affairs in Abu Dhabi Police, adopted a new lab-test to detect people taking synthetic cannabis (a psychoactive designer drug). Results are registered within a group of tests carried out on the biological sample. The test is performed in cooperation with an international company specialized in chemical tests.
Lieutenant Colonel Expert Dr. Nawal Al Kathiri, Head of the Chemical Analysis Division, said that many previous tests carried out to detect consumption of synthetic cannabis were limited to samples requested to be tested due to suspicion. According to Dr. Al Kathiri, those tests required the use of sensitive devices. These specific tests also lacked the special substance detecting kit that is similar to the testing kit used in traditional labs.
She said: “Cooperation with the company that produces these substances is a great achievement, as it enables automatic synthetic cannabis detection in a routine test along with other tests carried out to detect the drug or stimulus percentage in the same sample.”
Dr. Al Kathiri said that the laboratory obtained this special substance detecting kit to be used in the primary test to detect synthetic cannabis after its approval in 2012 by the manufacturing company. “In December 2012, test trials were carried out in cooperation with the concerned company to demonstrate the validity of the test and then approve it,” she explained.
She said: “Synthetic cannabis is the result of designer chemical compounds that create a hashish-like effect for users; however, synthetic cannabis is made up of different chemical compounds and has a different reaction time for users to start feeling the effect of the drug. They were first introduced in some European countries in 2004, and sold as a perfumed floral powder under the name SPICE. In 2008, laboratories were able to uncover its chemical formula and its reactive agent in the human body. Criminalizing synthetic cannabis on an international scale came late with some European countries criminalizing SPICE in 2009 after a wide spread outbreak of users. The legislator in UAE criminalized SPICE along with all other synthetic cannabis forms or names listed in the Table No.1 for Drugs under the Federal Law No.14 for the year 1995.