"Looking at Hair Reveals Drug Use from a Year Ago"… A Visit to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Forensic Chemistry Lab for Detailed Analysis

Drug administration assessment with 'over 100 hairs'... Multiple drugs detected at once
Record high of 26,800 assessments in 2021... 20 patents filed for drug testing technology

The entire Republic of Korea has suddenly fallen into a 'drug paradise.' The 'evidence' from drug cases investigated nationwide by the prosecution is gathered at the Forensic Chemistry Laboratory on the first floor of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-dong, Seoul. This is the only drug testing facility operated by the prosecution.

To experience drug testing firsthand, the reporter visited the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Forensic Chemistry Laboratory on the 26th of last month, carrying about 100 strands of hair.

Inside the forensic chemistry lab, dozens of large testing devices connected by transparent hoses and wires were stationed. The forensic researchers, dressed in white lab coats, all wore masks while operating the equipment. There were almost no chairs; everyone stood and busily moved between various devices to conduct tests.

Testing for marijuana requires about 150 strands of hair, and for methamphetamine, 50 to 70 strands. The reporter handed over approximately 100 strands of hair, pre-cut at a hair salon and placed in a plastic bag, to Kim Jin-young, the head of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Forensic Chemistry Laboratory.

"Are you confident? Even trace amounts of drugs taken a year ago can be detected," Kim said with a smile. Although the reporter has never used drugs, hearing this made him flinch. Kim smiled again and said, "Let's proceed with actual evidence samples that have been requested for drug testing. It's not that I'm worried you took drugs, but there are so many requests that we don't have much time."

The high-sensitivity chromatography-mass spectrometer proudly operated by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Forensic Chemistry Laboratory. Each unit costs 800 million KRW. Photo by Heo Kyung-jun

Although it was disappointing that the reporter could not directly experience testing with his own hair, he decided to observe to avoid interfering with the investigation.

The forensic chemistry lab receives about 14 requests per day on average. The submitted evidence includes hair, urine, and drug products, totaling around 26 items daily. Kim explained that the lab separates and identifies each drug component in the evidence and notifies the frontline prosecution offices of the results for approximately 150 drug components daily. The lab processes about 20,000 drug tests annually, and the number of tests has steadily increased over recent years, reaching a record high of about 26,800 in 2021.

To observe the entire drug testing process, the reporter first moved to the location where evidence sent by hand or courier from prosecution offices nationwide was stored. On the sorting table were white envelopes containing hair, and urine samples sealed in transparent containers were refrigerated.

Each envelope contained about 100 strands of hair, all trimmed to similar lengths. The reporter wondered why the length and quantity were so uniform.

"Why is such a large amount of hair needed?" (Reporter) "We need to check for drug use from recent times up to one year ago, and to test for multiple types of drugs, a large sample is necessary. Hair typically grows about 1 cm per month, so hair longer than 12 cm, which is over a year old, is not tested," explained Kim Jin-young.

A forensic scientist at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office is washing hair samples requested for examination before conducting drug tests. Photo by Heo Kyung-jun

A researcher took the hair in the envelope into the testing room. The room was filled with bottles of chemicals and testing tools. While looking around, the researcher suddenly began washing the hair of a suspect suspected of drug use with water. The reporter wondered, "Won't washing remove the drug components?" Then the hair was washed again with another liquid.

The reporter asked Seo Seung-il, the hair testing researcher, "Does washing remove the drug components?" He replied, "No, washing does not remove the drugs. We wash the hair multiple times with water, distilled water, acetone, and so on to remove other substances that might be on the hair surface to prevent false positives."

After washing, Seo dried the hair, weighed it, placed it in a container with steel beads, and ground it into powder. Then, chemical treatment was applied using methanol and other solvents, followed by ultrasonic extraction. Finally, the sample was placed into the lab’s pride and joy, a high-sensitivity chromatography-mass spectrometer. This equipment uses unique mass spectra for each drug component for identification and costs between 100 million to 800 million KRW per unit. The forensic chemistry lab owns about ten of these chromatography-mass spectrometers.

A forensic scientist at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office is conducting a urine test for drug analysis. Photo by Heo Kyung-jun

After observing the hair testing process, the reporter moved to the urine testing area. Urine testing involves settling precipitates from the subject’s urine, filtering the clear liquid, extracting about 2 ml, and detecting drug components using the chromatography-mass spectrometer.

The drug testing itself takes about 4 to 5 hours, but due to the backlog of requests, it takes about 2 to 3 weeks to notify results. However, urgent requests are prioritized. The hair sample observed by the reporter tested positive for methamphetamine, and the urine sample showed positive reactions for several drugs, including fentanyl.

Recent drug investigations show that offenders typically use 4 to 5 different drugs simultaneously. This requires dividing samples into multiple parts for testing, which increases the time needed for drug analysis. The forensic chemistry lab currently has the capability to detect over 300 types of drug components.

New types of drugs are increasing exponentially every year in Korea. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) classification, there were about 1,200 new drugs last year. To respond to these drug crimes, the forensic chemistry lab continuously develops new drug analysis methods. As of last month, the lab had published 80 papers in academic journals, registered 20 drug testing patents, and filed one patent application.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.