The use of this drug is so widespread that its trace is detected even in the fingers of those who do not take it.
You may not have sniffed a line of coke in your life and know about heroin only from the movies, news and junkies in your neighborhood (if there are any left), but there's a chance that you have traces of those drugs in your hands. And it's not too remote, by any means. According to a study by researchers at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, 13 percent of people have traces of cocaine in their fingerprints, and 1 percent have traces of heroin.
The authors of the paper, who had already created a fingerprint test to detect drug use, have developed a test to distinguish between people who take them regularly and those who are exposed to them by chance, for example by simply shaking hands.
Let's see those little fingers....
The researchers analyzed the fingerprints of 50 volunteers who did not test these drugs and 15 who took them regularly, and who had also used cocaine or heroin in the 24 hours prior to the test.
Result: traces of these addictive substances were found in the fingers of those who did not try them. Thirteen percent of the clean individuals were cocaine, and one percent had a metabolite that the body produces only when it comes into contact with heroin.
Dr. Melanie Bailey, a professor of Forensic Analysis at the University of Surrey, says, "Cocaine is very common in everyday objects such as bills, but we were surprised to find it in so many fingerprints of people who don't take drugs. This test is important because it can find out from a very simple, inexpensive and non-invasive test whether a person has used illegal substances or has only been in accidental contact with them.