Why doesn’t Forensic Laboratories perform drug analysis in hair?
Too many factors are unknown, and we feel there is insufficient foundation for the weighty decisions being made as a result of these analysis. Specifically, • Dose/hair-content relationships have not been established. • The significant role of hair pigmentation in drug accumulation has not been quantitated. • There is not an acceptable source of quality control material, where known drug doses have been administered to humans, and hair samples made available. Soaking of hair in drug solutions (external application) is not equivalent to drug ingestion. • There is not a widely used and accepted proficiency testing program.
