DetectionField Forensics launches quick opium detection kit

Field Forensics Inc., a U.S. developer of explosives detection and containment equipment, recently unveiled a new kit designed to detect a core chemical used to manufacture heroin. 

The kit, IDEX 008, which consists of a rugged plastic tube that is easy to open and carry, tests for the presence of Acetic Anhydride, a chemical used to refine opium into heroin.

The global heroin trade is estimated to be a $55 billion market annually, and the United States is one of the largest secondary markets behind the European Union, which consumes roughly $35 billion worth of the drug each year.

Afghanistan is by far the world’s largest producer of opium gum, the base ingredient in heroin, producing more than 90 percent of the global supply in the last two years, despite a concerted effort by the U.S. military to crack down on opium production.

Craig Johnson, the CEO of Field Forensics, said that IDEX 008 could help to fight the opium trade in Afghanistan.

“Despite the Afghan ban on Acetic Anhydride, thousands of tons are smuggled into the country each year,” Johnson said. “Use of the Field Forensics IDEX 008 detection test for Acetic Anhydride at targeted border points will significantly impact its entry into the country and therefore the production and exportation of heroin.”

The company’s IDEX 002 kits, which are designed to detect ammonium nitrate, a key ingredient in deadly improvised explosive devices, have already been produced and sold to the Afghan border police. Field Forensics has also sold more than 100,000 IDEX 002 kits to the U.S. Marine Corps and the Army for use in vehicle checkpoints on the Afghanistan borders with India, Iran and Pakistan.

Field Forensics was established in 2001 and is headquarter in 2001. The company specializes in providing devices capable of detecting and conducting rapid analysis of explosives, chemicals, drugs, and hazardous materials.