A cocaine breathalyzer may soon help law enforcement sniff out the drug within minutes, reports the New York Post.
The device could become a reality thanks to a new low-cost, chemical-sensing chip being developed at the University of Buffalo, the school announced Monday.
The chip could be integrated into a handheld device and used by authorities to detect drugs in breath, spit, urine, or blood.
“Currently, there is a great demand for on-site drug testing,” said Qiaoqiang Gan, associate professor of electrical engineering in the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “The high-performance chip we designed was able to detect cocaine within minutes in our experiments.”
Gan and the other developers of the chip hope to use this technology to spot other drugs, including opioids and marijuana, in the future.