This Handheld Device Detects Opioids. It’s Not Always Right

They call Arrand Johnston the Evidence Man, but he says the evidence isn’t what it used to be. Johnston is a narcotics detective in Fort Wayne, Ind., assigned to identify the various pills, powders, and crystals his fellow police officers seize the night before. In the room where he works, there’s a pinned reference poster of commonly abused pills, a panoply of sizes, shapes, and pastel colors. The poster, Johnston says, is almost obsolete in the age of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that’s struck terror in police departments because of its extreme toxicity and powdery resemblance to more pedestrian drugs.

Police departments across the U.S., including in Fort Wayne, are seeing a massive spike in overdose deaths. Stories of the drug sending police into overdose from mere skin contact are probably exaggerations—but not by much. Dealers tell you not to use fentanyl alone, and cops aren’t even supposed to touch it during a bust. Officials say they need a way to detect fentanyl that’s easier and more reliable than the decades-old, $2 roadside drug tests that look like a kids’ chemistry set and often have trouble identifying cocaine.