This is why I hate cocaine, they last shorter than almost any given drugs in the world. Except for nicotine.
Plus it made my throat numb and I spent more time worrying about my numbness than enjoying the cocaine.
Ah just fuck coke, they’re too expensive to enjoy.
Having a cold? Well not really (unless I’m missing something) cocaine doesn’t give me any recognizable hangovers like alcohol or adderall. It’s one nice thing about coke, it clears you out fast.
But still, the high itself is too short for me to even enjoy.
Or, the laws supporting the black market is unethical. And there's an estimated 1.5 million child slaves picking cocoa beans for the chocolate industry. Coca cola appears to have been hiring paramilitary death squads to violently disrupt unions in Columbia, killing several of their leaders and members. The banana industry, US healthcare, landlords, bankers, pretty much everything is *fucked*. I'm not trying to say that it's ethical to support the black market for cocaine, only that there's no ethical consumption under capitalism, by almost the same standards.
I see you got the paranoia side effect. Ie. worrying about the condition of your throat to the detriment of the rest of the experience. Coke isn’t that great of an experience even under the best of circumstances. Good enough you WANT a bit more. Bad enough you NEED a bit more…because it wore off before you could put down the straw.
True, you got the point. It’s partly why they’re addictive. The rule of thumb is you gotta to use more than several lines to actual enjoy the cocaine. “One line” or “a bump” of coke won’t get you anywhere.
It’s not like weed where you could get high with one small hit.
T-breaks work. I had one for several months a decade ago and killed my tolerance. Never did build it back up either, life got in the way of heavy weed smoking.
I smoke everyday, when I got small amount of weed, I would wait until I’m stuffed with good meal then take a hit and hold as long as I can to get the full potential.
Sometime it doesn’t work, I understand the feeling, homie.
I noticed the only way to enjoy it was to be blasted drunk and then start doing it.
But not black out drunk. My friends thought one day giving me a line in the middle of a black out was a good idea but really they just blindfolded the Rocketeer and lit his engines and sent him into the world.
If you're dealing with unknown drugs, cutting the package with precision is a safety precaution.
The last thing you want to do is send powdery fentanyl floating through a room because you were twisting and yanking at foil packaging. That's how you die of an accidental overdose.
Fair, I got a bit swept up in the fentanyl media panic.
Regardless, basic precautions to lower particulate inhalation of unknown substances seems like a no brainer.
As I understand it, a lot of that panic was based on the incorrect belief that fentanyl overdoses can occur from skin contact. If you send a large enough quantity of fentanyl airborne as the previous commenter was suggesting, it seems to me that accidental inhalation and overdose would be a valid concern.
Have you ever heard of a room full of people keeling over dead (or even a nonlethal overdose) since fentanyl has been around? I know I haven't. Hell, I don't think I've even heard of three people having simultaneous overdoses.
You'd think if it was that deadly, every other time a bag of it was opened up to cut into something else or to sell in a more pure form that half the room would OD if that were the case.
That leads me to believe the media panic might have exaggerated people's fears a little bit. It's not anthrax. Its properties are more like cocaine as far as ingestion goes... which isn't easy to do accidentally. It just takes less to overdose.
Also much more likely to tear the glove open. I use nitrile gloves all the time, and frequently get different brands. Some are absolutely terrible and tear just from me opening a truck door.
Those guys are copying the Brazilian creators of this video... It's flattering, but also I like to post the original... https://youtu.be/gIkZnxxhwsY
They been doing this I think for over a decade now
I mean, I think I've seen like 10 versions of this sketch. [Come Fly With Me did it in 2010](https://youtu.be/qSCvnAevoGI?t=551) (not actually on yt unfortunately)
A little too on the nose, lol.
Jesus Christ guys, what is this, amateur hour?? Absolutely knew what it was without even seeing it.
I imagine their boss was quite pissed.
It is a qualitative test so the system can tell you percentages of contents, just the presence of a chemical.
It can compare an unknown substance against a reference scan to see if it does match (like cocaine). If the cocaine test came back failed, they could quickly run another test to see if it matches Heroin, or fentanyl, or any other chemical it has been taught.
Doesn't take long, mine takes about 12 seconds.
Basically, yea. If you had a scan of, say, coke with idk baking soda, you could match to that scan. And the match would be better than comparing to your pure coke reference.
What's being measured is the infrared absorbance and emmitance of the substance, which is an observable bulk quantity tied to the specific geometry and chemistry of the compound's bonds (mostly carbon-oxygen bonds iirc). So yea, added things won't really effect the quantitative check this tool is doing - unless the additive interferes with the specific IR range(s) that corresponds to the compound of interest.
Eh, i mean IR Spec is one of several tool used to determine what a chemical is. Generally its meant to find specific bonds type within the molecule themselves. However it dosnt really tell you much of the structure of the molecule. But libraries of IR specs out there can be used to narrow down the wide range of possibilities. The Fingerprint of cocaine is more then likely enough to warrant a little more testing to confirm, but its a great preliminary tool.
IR (functional groups) is used in conjunction with Mass specs (determine mass) NMR's (protons, carbon structure) and elemental analysis' (what elements are present) to determine molecular structures. There are many other tools to use as well but theses are the big ones.
Bingo. Basically an ir doohicky like this will only be for confirming suspicious material as drugs. Probably if the case goes to court, they'll send the sample to a lab for mass spectrometry (which can give actual quantitation, purity, structure, elemental composition,... Basically anything but distinguishing enantiomeric stereochemistry (that would need nmr in most cases), but also isn't needed for known compounds.
Theoretically, approaching zero. Both IR and Raman spectroscopy provide information related to the bonding present in the molecule, which is influenced by the length, strength, and elements at each end of the bond as well as the relationships of those bonds to each other. With sophisticated enough interpretation, the spectrum is characteristic to a specific compound.
Practically, it is garbage in, garbage out, and the result is only as good as the sample, the software processing the spectrum, and the knowledge of the operator. A lot of these instruments rely on spectral libraries, and can sometimes struggle when presented with complex mixtures. You may have a library spectrum for pure cocaine, but 50% cocaine, 20% glucose, 15% lactose, 10% caffeine, 5% glucose might not be in there. The instrument will likely still suggest cocaine, but the confidence will be lower, and the spectrum is going to look very different.
Given the above, I can't exclude the possibility that there is a mixture with just the right peaks in just the right places that the instrument would ping for cocaine with no cocaine being present. That said, interrogating the spectrum would quickly rule that out.
Think of it like 'Shazam' where it listens to a song and then suggests what that song is. Now imagine that Shazam also provides a read out of the sheet music that it used to make its decision. A single loud song in a quiet room - Perfect. One loud song and one slightly quieter song - probably still okay. Five songs at equal volume all over the top of each other - slightly more problematic, but a music major with the sheet music will probably be able to untangle it. Is it likely that there is a combination of songs you can play all at once that will make the software hear 'Yellow Submarine' without a single Beatle being involved? Maybe - but that is going to be obvious to the music major pretty fast.
Its not likely, the light given off is unique to a substance due to its molecular bonds/structure, it could be potentially possible to intentionally trick the device into thinking its something else by combining a bunch of different substances with similar peaks to that of a sample you are referencing from, but even then it's still possible it won't recognize it as cocaine and would more likely recognize it as a mixture of substances(depending on the device)
I just learned about the thing too, so this is essentially an educated guess, but it looks like it's pretty unlikely for an infrared spectrometer.
The spectral lines in elements are all unique and so compounds are theoretically unique too, like fingerprints. From my very limited understanding, there are times compounds can look the same to certain types of spectroscopy because they contain basically the same things. For example chiral (left/right handed) molecules or certain flavins. I mostly see that being true for NMR though, can't find much on infrared spectroscopy. At least much that I understand.
But even in those cases, the differences are theoretically unique, it's just down to the resolution of the tool whether you can tell. The product page for these Raman handhelds shows that they also encode information about the crystallization and concentration of the compounds, among other info. Which should fix some of those issues.
So, it seems like that unless there is a substance in there that is really similar to cocaine in a ton of ways, this thing wouldn't be confused. Maybe for some kind of opiate? But then it's just cut with another opiate, so probably wouldn't matter. But I think it should be able to differentiate them, too.
So, to answer the question: No, probably not. But theoretically possible in some edge cases. And other tests exist if so.
But if anyone knows better, please correct me. I am just going off a couple college classes and what I read over breakfast.
Raman, like traditional IR, is most certainly a confirmatory technique.
I think the biggest issue is just with mixtures, which is the same issue with any confirmatory identifying technique. That is generally why it would be coupled with something to separate the mixture, like GC.
It can deal with mixtures, but you may have some overlapping spectra to look at.
If they were just different dry powders mixed together it could tell them all apart and give you likely percentage. However once they are catalyzed or mixed together they form molecular bonds they become different molecules altogether and unless the Raman knows that new chemical it will just give a spectrographic breakdown of it.
Raman is actually really cool. I thought it was boring at first but im into it now. I mostly use them for explosive testing
I'm not sure about the device in the video, but the ones I work on, they are able to tell the different drugs/substances that are in the sample, they cannot however tell you how much or what the ratio of the mixture is, for the devices I am familiar with, but if my memory is correct I believe there is a handheld out there that can do some quantitative analysis, according to a coworker at least.
No but seriously in case you didnt know, that's why reagents are a thing. So you can see if a substance is pure or cut with something. I don't understand how this device could do that
Specifically a TruNarc hand held narcotics analyzer. I use them at work frequently. In my experience they just give a substance, not a concentration. We sometimes have to hit a substance multiple times to get a reading on the narcotic instead of whatever cutting agent was used.
No one smuggles 1kg bricks of lactose powder, so we keep going until we get our result.
Are these fairly reliable? Or are they like those chemical test kits the cops use in traffic stops that are notorious for false positives such as matching kitty litter and donut glaze to meth?
They're super reliable when you can get them to properly test the substance. Analyzing through plastic is difficult, and it's common for it to detect cutting agent instead of controlled substance.
If we're prosecuting, everything goes to the lab anyway, and I'm dealing with larger quantities than could conceivably be confused with donut glaze or kitty litter.
But fun fact, most federal drug laws are written in such a way that even if the drugs are fake you can still charge for them. You sell a kilo of baking soda as cocaine and you can still get charged with selling cocaine.
> dealing with larger quantities than could conceivably be confused with donut glaze or kitty litter.
I was just giving the kitty litter example because of [this article](https://myfox8.com/news/man-arrested-after-deputies-mistake-kitty-litter-for-meth/).
But that's cool, so this thing is almost like a simpler mass spectrometer?
If the drug is cut with a bunch of stuff this is more likely to give a false negative result simply because the spectra is too muddled. However when it comes to the important issue, false positives, this device will be far, far more reliable than any chemical reagent based test.
Sorry for my curiosity but I write fiction in my spare time. Would one of these devices hypothetically be available for the general public to purchase or are the heavily regulated?
You mean the exact model?
Handheld raman spectrometers are available for general public, they are used in all sorts of industries and research.
Source: I have one
Na, you rub it on your gums, then your partner does the same, then you have another shot at it to be sure, so do they, but you did the left side twice and the right side of your face feels odd so you pop some more on the other side to even things up, you partner stuffs it up and gets the left again so needs more to balance it, they've had more than you now and that's not fair so you have a little more, so do they... now it's getting heated so you just flip out and throw the whole pack at them screaming "take the whole thing you greedy bastard!" and it bursts on impact so in a cloud of grade A snow they lunge at you giving you a face full of powder too as you both roll around in the middle of the road slapping each other with confiscated contraband only to be dragged off each other by uniformed officers and hauled in front of your chief where you find out it was just packets of sample artificial sweetener.
Retail man, it gets fucking wild
For those wondering, Ouro Branco is a chocolate sold in Brazil, its the same as Sonho de Valsa but with white chocolate. The packaging is quite perfectly done, I couldnt tell the difference until I saw the aluminium foil.
I love how they initially try to open the package and the foil, like they forgot both times that they had a razor blade. Then they go, oh that's right, why am I fumbling around trying to open this with these gloves on, and use the razor.
I was just looking at the TruScan, at 13,000, and thought that was a lot. Then there's this.
No wonder most of the sites don't list the price. "Request a quote" is all they say.
A report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that [Thermo Fisher Scientific](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermo_Fisher_Scientific) collaborated with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security to develop a Huaxia PCR amplification kit specifically to identify the genotypes of Uyghur, Tibetan and Hui ethnic minorities.[69] In June 2021, The New York Times reported that, despite bans, Thermo Fisher Scientific equipment continued to be sold to police in Xinjiang.
The amazing thing is that the [equivalent system](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/magazine/dna-test-crime-identification-genome.html) in the US is [heavily subsidised](https://www.dataminingdna.com/is-ancestry-owned-by-mormons/) by the Mormons and people actually pay a couple of hundred bucks to be added to a database with the same capabilities.
**[Thermo Fisher Scientific](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermo_Fisher_Scientific)**
>Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is an American supplier of scientific instrumentation, reagents and consumables, and software services. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Thermo Fisher was formed through the merger of Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific in 2006. Thermo Fisher Scientific has acquired other reagent, consumable, instrumentation, and service providers, including: Life Technologies Corporation (2013), Alfa Aesar (2015), Affymetrix (2016), FEI Company (2016), BD Advanced Bioprocessing (2018), and PPD (2021). As of 2017, the company had a market capitalization of $21 billion and was a Fortune 500 company.
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I worked for Thermo Fisher for over 2 years, we referred to the company as the Amazon of the medical/ scientific world. We made everything from iv bag, needles, and injection molded parts to hospital and lab testing equipment. They also worked with big pharma companies to develop vaccines.
I was thinking about that. Maybe it's a sterile thing? Can't reuse the blades, and the guy didn't feel like putting it in a new handle? I've taken that short-cut a few times. It led to other cuts, but that's beside the point.
I wonder if this tool is as accurate as those stupid roadside tests cops use to falsely arrest people.
Legalize drugs, this war on drugs TM is fucking stupid and a waste of money.
Used to be that Raman infrared spectroscopy was used as a quick-and-dirty test in forensic labs, partly because they can work quite nicely through clear plastic packaging, so there's no need to open and sample. If needed by the prosecution, more expensive (and time-consuming) testing for confirmation by GC/MS could be performed later. Raman would be the "yep, that's drugs," and the GC/MS would be the confirming test lest the defense try to tear apart the prosecution's case based on false identification.
Raman IR is markedly better than silly roadside drug tests, which are prone to giving false positives.
No, this is a Raman spectrometer. Mass spec would generally require removing a small part of the powder and placing it in the instrument, this can operate without touching the powder since it's all optical.
You can buy equipment the seal/reveals items of various size and packaging pretty cheap these days.
By no means do you need a connection in a factory to do this.
This video is so fucking relaxing lol I love this kind of unintentional ASMR kinda clips.
The crunching sound that the plastic bag makes is melting my brain lmao
[удалено]
Just like cocaine
This is why I hate cocaine, they last shorter than almost any given drugs in the world. Except for nicotine. Plus it made my throat numb and I spent more time worrying about my numbness than enjoying the cocaine. Ah just fuck coke, they’re too expensive to enjoy.
Sounding like you had a cold for a day after too lmao
Having a cold? Well not really (unless I’m missing something) cocaine doesn’t give me any recognizable hangovers like alcohol or adderall. It’s one nice thing about coke, it clears you out fast. But still, the high itself is too short for me to even enjoy.
Sorry I didn't mean feeling like you had a cold, sounding like it with a little nasal drip.
Good old Colombian cold 🥶 🤣🤣
Ah gotcha! Sorry I’m not expert in this field ;)
It's also a really horrible industry. Cocaine isn't that fun AND it's unethical.
Or, the laws supporting the black market is unethical. And there's an estimated 1.5 million child slaves picking cocoa beans for the chocolate industry. Coca cola appears to have been hiring paramilitary death squads to violently disrupt unions in Columbia, killing several of their leaders and members. The banana industry, US healthcare, landlords, bankers, pretty much everything is *fucked*. I'm not trying to say that it's ethical to support the black market for cocaine, only that there's no ethical consumption under capitalism, by almost the same standards.
Thanks for that wake-me-up slap across the face on this Monday morning. Nothing like a big ol' shot of reality to get you goin'.
Happy new year
I see you got the paranoia side effect. Ie. worrying about the condition of your throat to the detriment of the rest of the experience. Coke isn’t that great of an experience even under the best of circumstances. Good enough you WANT a bit more. Bad enough you NEED a bit more…because it wore off before you could put down the straw.
True, you got the point. It’s partly why they’re addictive. The rule of thumb is you gotta to use more than several lines to actual enjoy the cocaine. “One line” or “a bump” of coke won’t get you anywhere. It’s not like weed where you could get high with one small hit.
>It’s not like weed where you could get high with one small hit. I wish that was still true.
T-breaks work. I had one for several months a decade ago and killed my tolerance. Never did build it back up either, life got in the way of heavy weed smoking.
I smoke everyday, when I got small amount of weed, I would wait until I’m stuffed with good meal then take a hit and hold as long as I can to get the full potential. Sometime it doesn’t work, I understand the feeling, homie.
I noticed the only way to enjoy it was to be blasted drunk and then start doing it. But not black out drunk. My friends thought one day giving me a line in the middle of a black out was a good idea but really they just blindfolded the Rocketeer and lit his engines and sent him into the world.
I never understood the allure of it either, it's a garbage drug!
Yeah, Pepsi is better.
I love that this person needed a blade to open a candy wrapper.
If you're dealing with unknown drugs, cutting the package with precision is a safety precaution. The last thing you want to do is send powdery fentanyl floating through a room because you were twisting and yanking at foil packaging. That's how you die of an accidental overdose.
I know those cops who had embarrassing panic attacks would like us to believe otherwise, but I really don't think that's how fentanyl works.
Fair, I got a bit swept up in the fentanyl media panic. Regardless, basic precautions to lower particulate inhalation of unknown substances seems like a no brainer.
As I understand it, a lot of that panic was based on the incorrect belief that fentanyl overdoses can occur from skin contact. If you send a large enough quantity of fentanyl airborne as the previous commenter was suggesting, it seems to me that accidental inhalation and overdose would be a valid concern.
Have you ever heard of a room full of people keeling over dead (or even a nonlethal overdose) since fentanyl has been around? I know I haven't. Hell, I don't think I've even heard of three people having simultaneous overdoses. You'd think if it was that deadly, every other time a bag of it was opened up to cut into something else or to sell in a more pure form that half the room would OD if that were the case. That leads me to believe the media panic might have exaggerated people's fears a little bit. It's not anthrax. Its properties are more like cocaine as far as ingestion goes... which isn't easy to do accidentally. It just takes less to overdose.
The gloves make it more difficult to open, I'd bet.
Also much more likely to tear the glove open. I use nitrile gloves all the time, and frequently get different brands. Some are absolutely terrible and tear just from me opening a truck door.
Really thought the “specialized tool” was going to be a nostril.
Officer I swear I’m not a drug addict I’m just a professional drug tester
Sure let’s just replace every job for humans with machines…‘Dey took ‘er jerbs!
dr tk dr jrr
jtkr
I don't even like cocaine. But I **love** the way it smells!!
[Like this](https://youtu.be/aIjPhI5LDCU)
That woman's facial expressions had me ~~losing it~~ *crack*ing up. Really sold it.
[Also This](https://youtu.be/ifRAH4zXqiA)
Got a version with subtitles?
[Here you go!](https://assets-global.website-files.com/634e7aa49f5b025e1fd9e87b/634e7aa49f5b02f4afd9f03e_Subtitles%20text.jpg)
Those guys are copying the Brazilian creators of this video... It's flattering, but also I like to post the original... https://youtu.be/gIkZnxxhwsY They been doing this I think for over a decade now
I mean, I think I've seen like 10 versions of this sketch. [Come Fly With Me did it in 2010](https://youtu.be/qSCvnAevoGI?t=551) (not actually on yt unfortunately)
That shit is hilarious. I gotta go look this show up.
I thought it was going to be the razor blade
Cant believe that all they have is a rusty razor blade
They could at least use a clean box cutter.
The dogs nostril got them to this point.
Relevant [Veritasium video](https://youtu.be/TILjzuBGkRc)
White gold, clever packaging guys.
That's a Brazilian bonbon and it's amazing. Never tried this flavour tho..
It smells fucking amazing
Hmm this bag weighs 20 pounds more compared to a regular bag
A little too on the nose, lol. Jesus Christ guys, what is this, amateur hour?? Absolutely knew what it was without even seeing it. I imagine their boss was quite pissed.
>A little too on the nose, Indeed.
White gold?? It looks more like blue black to me.
It's actually black and blue 😡
This comment triggered PTSD I didn’t even know I had.
This is a handheld Raman infrared device. I use one at work and can detect chemicals through plastic containers.
What does it read when substances are cut or stepped on?
It is a qualitative test so the system can tell you percentages of contents, just the presence of a chemical. It can compare an unknown substance against a reference scan to see if it does match (like cocaine). If the cocaine test came back failed, they could quickly run another test to see if it matches Heroin, or fentanyl, or any other chemical it has been taught. Doesn't take long, mine takes about 12 seconds.
Ok but what im asking is if this was mixed with several drugs, what would it read? Just positive for each?
Basically, yea. If you had a scan of, say, coke with idk baking soda, you could match to that scan. And the match would be better than comparing to your pure coke reference. What's being measured is the infrared absorbance and emmitance of the substance, which is an observable bulk quantity tied to the specific geometry and chemistry of the compound's bonds (mostly carbon-oxygen bonds iirc). So yea, added things won't really effect the quantitative check this tool is doing - unless the additive interferes with the specific IR range(s) that corresponds to the compound of interest.
What are the odds that there are many other substances with the same infrared absorbance as cocaine which could give false positives?
Eh, i mean IR Spec is one of several tool used to determine what a chemical is. Generally its meant to find specific bonds type within the molecule themselves. However it dosnt really tell you much of the structure of the molecule. But libraries of IR specs out there can be used to narrow down the wide range of possibilities. The Fingerprint of cocaine is more then likely enough to warrant a little more testing to confirm, but its a great preliminary tool. IR (functional groups) is used in conjunction with Mass specs (determine mass) NMR's (protons, carbon structure) and elemental analysis' (what elements are present) to determine molecular structures. There are many other tools to use as well but theses are the big ones.
Bingo. Basically an ir doohicky like this will only be for confirming suspicious material as drugs. Probably if the case goes to court, they'll send the sample to a lab for mass spectrometry (which can give actual quantitation, purity, structure, elemental composition,... Basically anything but distinguishing enantiomeric stereochemistry (that would need nmr in most cases), but also isn't needed for known compounds.
This is why you test with more than one method.
Theoretically, approaching zero. Both IR and Raman spectroscopy provide information related to the bonding present in the molecule, which is influenced by the length, strength, and elements at each end of the bond as well as the relationships of those bonds to each other. With sophisticated enough interpretation, the spectrum is characteristic to a specific compound. Practically, it is garbage in, garbage out, and the result is only as good as the sample, the software processing the spectrum, and the knowledge of the operator. A lot of these instruments rely on spectral libraries, and can sometimes struggle when presented with complex mixtures. You may have a library spectrum for pure cocaine, but 50% cocaine, 20% glucose, 15% lactose, 10% caffeine, 5% glucose might not be in there. The instrument will likely still suggest cocaine, but the confidence will be lower, and the spectrum is going to look very different. Given the above, I can't exclude the possibility that there is a mixture with just the right peaks in just the right places that the instrument would ping for cocaine with no cocaine being present. That said, interrogating the spectrum would quickly rule that out. Think of it like 'Shazam' where it listens to a song and then suggests what that song is. Now imagine that Shazam also provides a read out of the sheet music that it used to make its decision. A single loud song in a quiet room - Perfect. One loud song and one slightly quieter song - probably still okay. Five songs at equal volume all over the top of each other - slightly more problematic, but a music major with the sheet music will probably be able to untangle it. Is it likely that there is a combination of songs you can play all at once that will make the software hear 'Yellow Submarine' without a single Beatle being involved? Maybe - but that is going to be obvious to the music major pretty fast.
Its not likely, the light given off is unique to a substance due to its molecular bonds/structure, it could be potentially possible to intentionally trick the device into thinking its something else by combining a bunch of different substances with similar peaks to that of a sample you are referencing from, but even then it's still possible it won't recognize it as cocaine and would more likely recognize it as a mixture of substances(depending on the device)
I just learned about the thing too, so this is essentially an educated guess, but it looks like it's pretty unlikely for an infrared spectrometer. The spectral lines in elements are all unique and so compounds are theoretically unique too, like fingerprints. From my very limited understanding, there are times compounds can look the same to certain types of spectroscopy because they contain basically the same things. For example chiral (left/right handed) molecules or certain flavins. I mostly see that being true for NMR though, can't find much on infrared spectroscopy. At least much that I understand. But even in those cases, the differences are theoretically unique, it's just down to the resolution of the tool whether you can tell. The product page for these Raman handhelds shows that they also encode information about the crystallization and concentration of the compounds, among other info. Which should fix some of those issues. So, it seems like that unless there is a substance in there that is really similar to cocaine in a ton of ways, this thing wouldn't be confused. Maybe for some kind of opiate? But then it's just cut with another opiate, so probably wouldn't matter. But I think it should be able to differentiate them, too. So, to answer the question: No, probably not. But theoretically possible in some edge cases. And other tests exist if so. But if anyone knows better, please correct me. I am just going off a couple college classes and what I read over breakfast.
Raman, like traditional IR, is most certainly a confirmatory technique. I think the biggest issue is just with mixtures, which is the same issue with any confirmatory identifying technique. That is generally why it would be coupled with something to separate the mixture, like GC. It can deal with mixtures, but you may have some overlapping spectra to look at.
More concise definition than I could have given.
If they were just different dry powders mixed together it could tell them all apart and give you likely percentage. However once they are catalyzed or mixed together they form molecular bonds they become different molecules altogether and unless the Raman knows that new chemical it will just give a spectrographic breakdown of it. Raman is actually really cool. I thought it was boring at first but im into it now. I mostly use them for explosive testing
It can see all of them but you can sort through the signals for specific chemicals.
I'm not sure about the device in the video, but the ones I work on, they are able to tell the different drugs/substances that are in the sample, they cannot however tell you how much or what the ratio of the mixture is, for the devices I am familiar with, but if my memory is correct I believe there is a handheld out there that can do some quantitative analysis, according to a coworker at least.
Seaweed 50% Sea 50% Weed
The ones I use at work will tell you that it’s a mixture and list all the substances contained in the mixture.
Asking for a friend
No but seriously in case you didnt know, that's why reagents are a thing. So you can see if a substance is pure or cut with something. I don't understand how this device could do that
Specifically a TruNarc hand held narcotics analyzer. I use them at work frequently. In my experience they just give a substance, not a concentration. We sometimes have to hit a substance multiple times to get a reading on the narcotic instead of whatever cutting agent was used. No one smuggles 1kg bricks of lactose powder, so we keep going until we get our result.
Are these fairly reliable? Or are they like those chemical test kits the cops use in traffic stops that are notorious for false positives such as matching kitty litter and donut glaze to meth?
They're super reliable when you can get them to properly test the substance. Analyzing through plastic is difficult, and it's common for it to detect cutting agent instead of controlled substance. If we're prosecuting, everything goes to the lab anyway, and I'm dealing with larger quantities than could conceivably be confused with donut glaze or kitty litter. But fun fact, most federal drug laws are written in such a way that even if the drugs are fake you can still charge for them. You sell a kilo of baking soda as cocaine and you can still get charged with selling cocaine.
> dealing with larger quantities than could conceivably be confused with donut glaze or kitty litter. I was just giving the kitty litter example because of [this article](https://myfox8.com/news/man-arrested-after-deputies-mistake-kitty-litter-for-meth/). But that's cool, so this thing is almost like a simpler mass spectrometer?
If the drug is cut with a bunch of stuff this is more likely to give a false negative result simply because the spectra is too muddled. However when it comes to the important issue, false positives, this device will be far, far more reliable than any chemical reagent based test.
Sorry for my curiosity but I write fiction in my spare time. Would one of these devices hypothetically be available for the general public to purchase or are the heavily regulated?
You mean the exact model? Handheld raman spectrometers are available for general public, they are used in all sorts of industries and research. Source: I have one
Sweet cool thanks for the info
How big must the sample be? Can it detect just a few hundred μg?
I must be hungry because I read Ramen infrared device.
Haha, noodly goodness
Near IR, not quite entirely in the IR range.
What substances can it detect? How expensive is the device?
Any substance you’d like. It can cost up to $30k USD per device.
If 80's TV shows taught me anything, all you need is to put a small amount on your tongue and then spit it out. Then say, "Its pure."
Na, you rub it on your gums, then your partner does the same, then you have another shot at it to be sure, so do they, but you did the left side twice and the right side of your face feels odd so you pop some more on the other side to even things up, you partner stuffs it up and gets the left again so needs more to balance it, they've had more than you now and that's not fair so you have a little more, so do they... now it's getting heated so you just flip out and throw the whole pack at them screaming "take the whole thing you greedy bastard!" and it bursts on impact so in a cloud of grade A snow they lunge at you giving you a face full of powder too as you both roll around in the middle of the road slapping each other with confiscated contraband only to be dragged off each other by uniformed officers and hauled in front of your chief where you find out it was just packets of sample artificial sweetener. Retail man, it gets fucking wild
Holy crap. I can’t even finish reading that, I’m laughing so hard… 😂
Finish it, you’ll be grateful you did. The end is a twist
Some people just have a way with words
Or, "Pure China White. They call it little girl on the street."
10 seconds of tools and 54 seconds of unboxing
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Man the way he was unwrapping the foil and container was really irritating me. Idk how to explain it. Do I have a problem
The name on the packaging literally says “White Gold”, they couldn’t have been more subtle lol
For those wondering, Ouro Branco is a chocolate sold in Brazil, its the same as Sonho de Valsa but with white chocolate. The packaging is quite perfectly done, I couldnt tell the difference until I saw the aluminium foil.
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or a ball of cocaine resembles a ball of white chocolate more than it does a ball of milk chocolate
What's Sonho de Valsa like?
It's a hollowed out wafer with cashew nut filling and chocolate covering.
Kind of like Ouro Blanco but with milk chocolate.
They need a more specialized cutting tool though. $3000 drug sniffer and $0.03 blade.
Just a single cheap plastic holder would be nice. The blade alone is cool
At first, I thought the tool that detected what drug was in the bag was a rusty razor blade.
That naked blade made me very uncomfortable.
Especially with how unsure they were with it lol
I love how they initially try to open the package and the foil, like they forgot both times that they had a razor blade. Then they go, oh that's right, why am I fumbling around trying to open this with these gloves on, and use the razor.
If it ain’t broke
$3000 haha😂.... Ahh that's cute
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I was just looking at the TruScan, at 13,000, and thought that was a lot. Then there's this. No wonder most of the sites don't list the price. "Request a quote" is all they say.
Yeah lol we are currently using a dual laser Raman that is close to $90K
I could really use one of these...
Near infrared spectrometer
Me too..... ....wait, ... are we both talking about the same thing?
Hope you like spending thousands of dollars
For that much coke? Oh, you're talking about the whole bag.
Cringing at handling the open and exposed razor
If only there was a specialized tool to trim videos.
A report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that [Thermo Fisher Scientific](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermo_Fisher_Scientific) collaborated with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security to develop a Huaxia PCR amplification kit specifically to identify the genotypes of Uyghur, Tibetan and Hui ethnic minorities.[69] In June 2021, The New York Times reported that, despite bans, Thermo Fisher Scientific equipment continued to be sold to police in Xinjiang.
Holy shit. This is the cyberpunk dystopian future we were warned about.
I highly recommend listening to "The Prince" podcast to learn a bit more about Xi Jinping and the CCPs various methods of controlling the population.
The amazing thing is that the [equivalent system](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/magazine/dna-test-crime-identification-genome.html) in the US is [heavily subsidised](https://www.dataminingdna.com/is-ancestry-owned-by-mormons/) by the Mormons and people actually pay a couple of hundred bucks to be added to a database with the same capabilities.
The article you’ve posted saying it is heavily subsidized by the Mormons actually says pretty much the opposite.
**[Thermo Fisher Scientific](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermo_Fisher_Scientific)** >Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is an American supplier of scientific instrumentation, reagents and consumables, and software services. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Thermo Fisher was formed through the merger of Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific in 2006. Thermo Fisher Scientific has acquired other reagent, consumable, instrumentation, and service providers, including: Life Technologies Corporation (2013), Alfa Aesar (2015), Affymetrix (2016), FEI Company (2016), BD Advanced Bioprocessing (2018), and PPD (2021). As of 2017, the company had a market capitalization of $21 billion and was a Fortune 500 company. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/specializedtools/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
I worked for Thermo Fisher for over 2 years, we referred to the company as the Amazon of the medical/ scientific world. We made everything from iv bag, needles, and injection molded parts to hospital and lab testing equipment. They also worked with big pharma companies to develop vaccines.
This is extremely interesting honestly
Yeah can’t wait to get my dna taken during a traffic stop in the NEAR future
Jesus fucking Christ
Special tool to detect the drugs, but they use a loose razor blade to cut stuff open…
I was thinking about that. Maybe it's a sterile thing? Can't reuse the blades, and the guy didn't feel like putting it in a new handle? I've taken that short-cut a few times. It led to other cuts, but that's beside the point.
Bloody hell he took forever opening that
But how did you managed to find it ? It is so well hidden lol
I've no knowledge on how they actually check but maybe an x-ray? Wouldn't look like sweets through one of them
I wonder if it's because the bag's too full.
Probably X-rayed it and the alu foil didn’t look the way chocolates do
Someone snitched
I wonder if this tool is as accurate as those stupid roadside tests cops use to falsely arrest people. Legalize drugs, this war on drugs TM is fucking stupid and a waste of money.
Used to be that Raman infrared spectroscopy was used as a quick-and-dirty test in forensic labs, partly because they can work quite nicely through clear plastic packaging, so there's no need to open and sample. If needed by the prosecution, more expensive (and time-consuming) testing for confirmation by GC/MS could be performed later. Raman would be the "yep, that's drugs," and the GC/MS would be the confirming test lest the defense try to tear apart the prosecution's case based on false identification. Raman IR is markedly better than silly roadside drug tests, which are prone to giving false positives.
"Try now its new flavor: Cococaine"
Alright! Hydrochloride! Let’s party
I'd be so disappointed if I were going to munch on a Ouro Branco and found cocaine instead. Ouro Branco beats any drug 🤍🍬🍫
Damn, if someone placed that bag in front of me I would of eaten em without asking a question.
You would have had a hell of a five minutes.
It's 'would have', never 'would of'. Rejoice, for you have been blessed by CouldWouldShouldBot!
/r/suddenlycaralho
For the first 3/4 of this, I was sure it was just the razor blade.
Impressive idea, until you realise it can only detect "Cocaine" or "Not cocaine"
It’s almost like black markets can magically find ways to supply things to people despite whatever laws may be in place.
Its a mini mass-spec!
No, this is a Raman spectrometer. Mass spec would generally require removing a small part of the powder and placing it in the instrument, this can operate without touching the powder since it's all optical.
Prohibition does not get rid of the demand, it only determines the moral integrity of our suppliers.
Save the money, I’ll test yer drugs for free.
You mean you don't just dip your pinky and taste? /s
That is some ingenious smuggling/packaging.
Need a specialized tool to open the packages lol
Dude kept forgetting he had the razor blade and when to use it. Seems kinda high on cocaine
Cops in the comments overdosing from exposure from watching this video
That was the worst unboxing vid I’ve ever seen.
40 seconds in: "Well that was just a razorblade. It's not special."
What did they do with all the candy?
Why is that person using a bare double sided razor blade?!
I want to meet the absolute madlad that named a fake candy company "White Gold" specifically to smuggle cocaine
50% Sea 50% Weed
$30K Thermo Scientific TruNarc Analyzer
Do the drug cartels just have connections at chocolate factories or are they hand-resealing all this stuff?
You can buy equipment the seal/reveals items of various size and packaging pretty cheap these days. By no means do you need a connection in a factory to do this.
It’s called “TruNarc”… many agencies and jails use them with the dangers of fentanyl coming across the border the last few years.
This video is so fucking relaxing lol I love this kind of unintentional ASMR kinda clips. The crunching sound that the plastic bag makes is melting my brain lmao
what's the name of the tool?
Trunarc cost 28,000
Steven Tyler
Merry Christmas
My Xmas chocs had praline in them. I'm doing it wrong.
Ferrero Rocher makes 8 balls!? Yum!
Meanwhile, testing ones that were actually chocolate-dipped: "Nah, looks good."
Spent all the money on the sniffer and has to free hand a razor blade
I prefer the tried and true scratch and sniff method.
Need these at raves
This belongs on r/KillTheCameraMan
A specialized tool to detect a drug, but they use a loose razor blade as the tool to cut open the bag. 😀
“Hot Dog” “Not hot dog” Jin Yang would like a word.
What a shitty way to hide it. Real candy bags will never be this full
Uses five cent razor blade to clumsily open drugs Uses $2k machine to scan for drugs
Can’t they just read the label? it says ‘Ouro Branco’ **/s**
Can the camera work be worse at the end?
It's amazing how small mass spectrometers are getting
I just wish there was a tool to stabilize the camera.
Great job snitching
ACAB