Determination of fentanyl in hair: the case of the crooked criminalist.

Abstract

When a State Crime Laboratory Director found that fentanyl patches were missing from a case submission stored in his evidence vault, he performed an investigation of those members of his staff who had access to the materials. As part of this investigation, two staff members were forced to submit to hair testing for fentanyl and other opiates and opioids. This unusual testing protocol was used to identify a senior Criminalist as a chronic abuser of fentanyl, and led to the rapid resolution of the case. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the forensic analysis of hair for drugs of abuse in which the technology was used to identify an individual as a chronic fentanyl abuser.