How A Chemist Might Look At A Drug Test Kit

The writer of the following article never developed even a passing interest in experimenting with drugs. She never concerned herself with the potential of any drug test kit. Still she can not claim that her lack of concern for the existence of a drug test kit was entirely justified. For a short time, the writer sat behind the wheel of a car while both Dilantin and Phenobarbital flowed through her bloodstream. Her doctors had prescribed those drugs as a way to prevent a seizure.   Finally, after the writer had become pregnant, her neurologist helped her to end her use of those two drugs.In the year 2000, the American Chemical Society (ACS) published a magazine that contained a picture of the Beatles. Why would the ACS expect its readers (mostly professional chemists) to take an interest in the Beatles? That ACS publication touched on drug use during the 1960s—a prelude to creation of the drug test kit

Actually, the proliferation of illegal and legal drugs during the 1960s, and the increased use of those drugs, led to the creation of more than one type of drug test kit. The expansion of legal and illegal drugs in the 1960s had a profound impact on both medicine and politics. Professionals in both fields came to appreciate the benefits of a drug test kit.

Increased drug use had resulted largely from advances in technology and manufacturing. Those advances had fostered an increased availability of illegal drugs. That increased availability had led to the proliferation of drug use.

Scientists and politicians sought to reverse the widening use of drugs. They considered using the very tools that had caused the increased drug use. They wanted to heighten the confidence of law enforcement in any drug test kit.

While some scientists worked closely with politicians, other scientists became inventors. They sought to reduce the size of the equipment then available for use in drug detection. Their efforts paved the way for development of a compact drug test kit.

While many drug users enjoyed their “highs,” a fair number of scientists worked hard to develop better ways of testing for drug use. While many drug users got pleasure from the inhalation, injection or ingestion of drugs, some scientists put work before pleasure. They worked closely with engineers and technicians.

Some scientists met with those who understood how to create a workable microchip. Such a microchip would eventually find its way into a drug test kit. That microchip would give law enforcement the ability to carry drug detection tools to the scene of a crime.

Other scientist investigated the operation of devices with a digital readout. In the past, scientific detection had relied on various scales. Such scales did not give the user an exact number. Scientists liked exact numbers. They wanted to learn how to design equipment that relied on digital detection.

Eventually the advances made in drug detection began to outpace the rate of increased drug use. Eventually, society began to appreciate the advantages of a drug test kit. Some credit for such advancements could be given to the hard-working scientists, many of whom were chemists.

That fact explains why the American Chemical Society chose to put a picture of the Beatles in a magazine published by the Society, a magazine intended to showcase a Society claim. The ACS had called the 1960s the “Pharmaceutical Decade of the Pharmaceutical Century.”

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