Illicit Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Analysis

Abstract

Over the years, chemometrics has been increasingly proposed and used in the field of forensic science. This trend can be seen in the area of illicit drugs and pharmaceuticals. A variety of analyses (both qualitative and quantitative) are performed on illicit drugs and pharmaceuticals, leading to complex and often multi-dimensional datasets. The use of chemometrics, combined with the correct interpretation of the results, can provide additional information to aid decisions regarding crime disruption, prevention and reduction. Of particular interest in this chapter is the generation and analysis of drug profiles that often contain high-dimensional data that needs to be processed and interpreted in a systematic manner. Chemometrics can highlight patterns and trends in the data that relate to essential questions regarding classification and discrimination of specimens, for example classifying illicit drug seizures into chemical classes based on profile similarity or discriminating counterfeit pharmaceuticals from their authentic counterparts. This chapter provides a literature review of the most common chemometric methods used in drug profiling, with a particular focus on pattern recognition methods.