With the opioid epidemic causing a backlog in often understaffed crime laboratories, the last thing forensic specialists need is to spend time and money testing legal products. But that’s exactly what happens when police find hemp products on an individual.
Hemp and marijuana are visually indistinguishable, but hemp is legal in all states whereas recreational marijuana is illegal in a majority of states and at the federal level. Since hemp and marijuana are derived from the same plant, they can only be differentiated by the amount of Delta-9-THC in each. Without being able to test a sample in the field, law enforcement must seize any suspected controlled substance and submit it to a crime lab for full analysis, which can take months and cost thousands of dollars.
Researchers at the Purdue University Northwest’s Center for Crime, Forensics and Security Analysis teamed up with Hemp Synergistics, LLC, to solve this costly problem. After a year of research, development, testing and validation, the team has debuted the TRU (THC Recognition Unit), a field kit law enforcement can use to distinguish between hemp and marijuana in about five minutes.
“Up until now, there's been no in-the-field tool to accurately and effectively detect and respond to deviations in THC levels in products the public is consuming," said Ron Fazio, a former forensic scientist and current chief operations officer at Hemp Synergistics. "As a result, law enforcement is forced to divert valuable resources to investigate, citizens lose liberties, and an otherwise legal industry is hampered. It's a huge expense that no one wants."
The chemistry of TRU is based on the existing Duquenois-Levine reagent test, which is commonly used by law enforcement and crime laboratories as a quick way to detect the presence of marijuana. The key difference is that the reagents are packaged in individual compartments within the TRU device so they are not exposed to one another until test time.
When the occasion arises, an officer simply needs to obtain a small sample from the individual and insert it into a vial in the device where it comes into contact with the reagents, which begin to mix. The sample’s exposure to the reagents triggers a colorimetric panel that provides an identification and semi-quantitation of Delta-9 THC and Delta-9 THCA.
“From that, the officer can glean whether it’s above or below the legal level of THC, thereby differentiating between hemp and marijuana,” Christian Westring, director of the Center for Crime, Forensics, and Security Analysis, explained to Forensic.
In addition to taking less than 10 minutes, each test costs approximately $14 dollars—a steal when compared to the hundreds or thousands of dollars for traditional crime lab testing.
"This product is not designed to replace full forensic laboratory testing, rather it is designed to give a rapid, accurate field test that can identify what doesn't need to go to the lab. We estimate it can lower forensic laboratory submittals of suspected marijuana cases by 50 percent," said Westring.
TRU has been rigorously tested at the Center for Crime, Forensics and Security Analysis utilizing Hemp Synergistics’ expansive portfolio of hemp products, as well as research marijuana samples. The field kit has not been dispatched into service yet, but Westring said they plan to partner with multiple state police labs who have expressed interest. TRU will then be available for law enforcement in late fall 2020.
The newly created Center for Crime, Forensics, and Security Analysis provides education, training, research and development and forensic science testing services to academia, law enforcement and legal communities. Its goal is to promote the advancement of science, while improving the resources needed to ensure public safety at the local, state and federal level.
Westring said the center differs from other university models in that Purdue’s is focused on academic and industry partnership, rather than research alone.
“We work with industry partners who are interested in everything and anything law enforcement, public safety and public health,” Westring said. “We are interested in taking the knowledge and expertise we have at the Center and helping those agencies in any way we can.”
Photo: TRU can distinguish hemp from marijuana in the field in less than 10 minutes. Credit: Hemp Synergistics/Ron Fazio