THE PROBLEM: Keeping on top of the U.S. drug overdose crisis presents formidable challenges, especially because the components of street drugs continuously shift and vary. Local and state health authorities must stay up to date on new additives and cutting agents in the nation’s drug supply to prepare for the consequences of new drug components and inform people who use them. Rapid analysis and reporting of those changing components is vital to addressing present challenges — but that analysis has been hindered by backlogs, limited geographical information, and the 10 to 30 minutes required to identify chemical compounds in a sample. 

THE SOLUTION: For more than eight years, researchers from the Materials Measurement Science Division (MMSD) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Material Measurement Laboratory have been developing tests to rapidly identify trace compounds collected from drug paraphernalia. A team from the MMSD’s Surface and Trace Chemical Analysis Group created the Rapid Drug Analysis and Research (RaDAR) Program. Begun as a pilot in October 2022, RaDAR gives near real-time information on the composition of street drugs. Its analytical arm, Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS), analyzes and identifies trace compounds from drug paraphernalia and packaging. This method cuts the identification of chemical compounds in a sample from a minimum of 10 minutes to a maximum of one minute. This allows RaDAR to analyze samples and report results on the same day it is received, significantly speeding up the timeline. The high sensitivity of DART-MS means collaborators in the field need only apply a cotton swab to the outside of the paraphernalia to be tested. If a package is to be tested, RaDAR Program participants do not even have to open the package. They mail the swab to RaDAR and receive the report via email. 

THE TECH TRANSFER MECHANISM: The entities participating in RaDAR have different organizational structures and are based in different states. So, one size does not fit all when it comes to Material Transfer Agreements. Staff from NIST’s Technology Partnerships Office, NIST’s Office for the Chief Counsel, and the MMSD’s Surface and Trace Chemical Analysis Group collaborated to identify and refine the appropriate interlaboratory agreement templates for the individual RaDAR participants. 

THE IMPACT: RaDAR provides comprehensive drug testing data to 13 states or territories across the U.S.: California, Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia. Thanks to RaDAR, those 13 all have individual or collaborative successes in analyzing and identifying trace compounds on drug paraphernalia. In total, more than 10,000 samples have been analyzed since RaDAR began in October 2022, and over 6,500 samples were analyzed in fiscal year 2024 alone. Although RaDAR analyses cannot be used in criminal investigations, they provide public health partners with data that will result in harm reduction.