TICTAC has one of the largest and most up-to-date spectral libraries of new psychoactive substances (NPS) and other drugs for Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (ATR/FTIR). The library is updated every year to ensure it includes the latest NPS. The 2024 library update will add 161 drugs, including 41 opioids. The 2024 library contains 939 drugs/drug related substances. The largest constituents include opioids (139, of which 48 are fentanyl analogues and 35 nitazenes), stimulants (291), benzodiazepines, depressants, dissociatives (109), hallucinogens (64), SCRAs (138) and drug contaminants, adulterants, diluents, potentiates and precursors (52).
Without these libraries, attempts to identify the numerous new psychoactive substances using FTIR or Raman will simply result in “unknown substance”. Laboratories, drug checking organisations and police forces wishing to identify a substance will either have to leave it as an “unknown substance” or go on to more complex analytical techniques which are expensive and time consuming.
With TICTAC’s spectral libraries, many hundreds of new psychoactive substances are easily identifiable. As more and more new psychoactive substances enter the market, the need to identify them becomes more difficult and increasingly important. While a number of countries have introduced legislation to help combat NPS, such as the UK’s Psychoactive Substances Act, new drugs continue to be reported in Europe and North America at a steady pace, with just under one new drug per week reported to the EMCDDA in 2023. This is why TICTAC’s spectral libraries are updated every year. TICTAC’s spectral library make detecting these new drugs possible.
