Analysis of Drugs of Abuse through Waste Water and Street Samples: An Alternative Approach to Drug Prevalence Studies
Dr Lata Gautam
With constant emergence of new illicit drugs and increasing abuse of pharmaceutical compounds, there is a need for method development for their detection from complex matrices such as waste water and the seized street samples. In that regard, this presentation will cover findings from our analysis of street drugs seized by Cambridgeshire Constabulary, UK. Waste water samples as an alternative to the drug surveys were analysed to estimate the consumption of drugs of abuse in a community and reveal the real time data. The presentation will include a detailed discussion on research and development towards finding an effective method for the detection of various drugs from different type of samples, which in turn will be of an interest for analytical laboratories, forensic case-workers and law enforcement agencies.
Before taking up her current position as Senior Lecturer and Course Leader at Anglia Ruskin University, Lata was engaged in postdoctoral research in the Environmental Sciences Research Centre under the Millennium European Climate project. She also holds an MSc and BSc from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. She has worked in the Toxicology & Chemistry Unit and the Biology & Serology Unit at the National Forensic Science Laboratory, Nepal, where she analysed forensic case samples.
Lata’s expertise lies in drugs and pharmaceutical analysis from different matrices using chromatography and mass spectrometry. Specifically, Lata’s areas of expertise and interest lie in drug binding to hair components (melanin, keratin), drug analysis of biological samples (blood, urine) and alternative matrices (hair, nail, saliva). She is interested in research work involving chromatographic, spectrometric and spectroscopic techniques and supervises research in forensic toxicology, environmental toxicology and drugs analysis.