Critical evaluation of the usefulness of latent fingerprints for drug screening

Abstract

Fingerprint has been used for many years. It's a powerful tool for individual identification hence become keystone in forensic investigation. Latent fingerprint showed the potential to be used for obtaining the chemical information by using several techniques which lead to detect a various type of drugs and its metabolites. However, the capabilities to appropriately interpret the result and identify the source of the drugs might be challenging. Google Scholar & PubMed was used as sources to search for published studies written in English between 2000 and 2020 by using key words associated with fingerprint for drug detection. The search included the cited references to find related articles. In this review article, a brief discussion of the fingerprint and the source of drugs in fingerprint was reviewed. In addition to the detection methods of drugs in fingerprint. Several analytical techniques successfully detect the drugs in fingerprint in a rapid and non-invasive methods. The aim of this review was to provide a critical evaluation of latent fingerprints for drug screening on the aspect of forensic.