Drug Identification with Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry

Drugs are used everyday by people in many different ways for many different reasons. Drug testing has become a standard in pre-employment testing, because of the wide variety of drug use in today's society. Drugs tested for by a possible employer include Cocaine (crack), Amphetamines (crystal), Opiates (codeine, morphine, heroin), PCP (phencyclidine), and Marijuana. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry is used to test hair and urine samples of possible drug abusers or job applicants, and it …

…of the prospective employee, and run the sample(s) through a GC/MS to determine if the possible employee has used drugs. They determine this by comparing mass chromatograms of known drugs with that of the test sample. The gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer is known as the best resource to prove the identification of a chemical substance, such as a drug, because of the mass chromatographs that act like a fingerprint of a chemical substance.