By Ma.Teresa Montemayor | Philippine News Agency
MANILA — A drug testing kit, which can identify designer drugs for effective law enforcement, is now within reach as the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) launched on Tuesday the University of the Philippines-Manila Drugs Abuse Research Laboratory (UP-DARL).
CHED chair J. Prospero de Vera III said the UP-DARL is a research collaboration between UP Manila and University of California, which aims to address the gaps identified in responding to the current problem of drug use and abuse in the country.
It is fully-funded by the CHED, through the Philippine-California Advanced Research Institutes program. It also involves the participation of the member agencies of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) such as CHED, Department of Health (DOH), Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
“The current drug testing that we have is used for identifying between three to four drugs only, marijuana, cocaine, etc., it cannot detect the designer drugs. So, our law enforcement officers are handicapped because, if they are able to arrest suspects and confiscate drugs, it is difficult to prove in court because there is no evidence in court that it is an illegal drug,” de Vera told reporters on the sidelines of the launch.
Using liquid “ecstasy” as an example of commonly confiscated designer drugs, de Vera stressed the need for a “continuous testing to identify additional psychoactive substances” often abused by the youth.
“The technology is already available in the United States through the University of California in San Francisco. It is linking with UP Manila to transfer technology, help people in the Philippines, have the machines available, and as much as possible, we will roll this out to all law enforcement agencies like PDEA, NBI, PNP, DOH so we could do comprehensive drug testing in the country,” he added.
He said they expect to complete the drug testing kit in two years, which can identify more than 100 illegal drugs, while they work on an “interim drug testing kit that can at least identify additional substances, which are impossible to spot with the country’s current technology”.
To create healthy and safe campuses, de Vera said CHED has been working of drug-free learning environment for college students for years.
“This is already integrated in most of the drug tests in the country…what we expect in the universities is there will mandatory random drug testing for students,” he added.
In line with this project, the UP-DARL held a Conference on Substances of Abuse in the Philippines on June 4 to 5. It aims to impart knowledge on various substances of abuse, including new psychoactive substances, to physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and analysts.
