The Center for Forensic Science Research and Education (CFSRE) is working in collaboration with law enforcement, public health, and public safety agencies to rapidly identify emerging drugs, also known as Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS), associated with intoxications and adverse events. The information, reports, and resources consolidated here by the CFSRE allow for the rapid dissemination of information to stakeholders and affected communities.

The CFSRE would like to acknowledge its collaborative NPS partners, including NMS Labs, various medical examiner and coroner offices, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, the UMass Division of Medical Toxicology, the American College of Medical Toxicology, the Utah Poison Control Center, and the International Society for the Study of Emerging Drugs (ISSED), among many others. In addition, the CFSRE appreciates its technical collaborative partners: Cayman Chemical, SCIEX, and Waters Corporation.

Our program is supported in part by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice (Award Number 2020-DQ-BX-0007, “Real-Time Sample-Mining and Data-Mining Approaches for the Discovery of Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS)”). The opinions, findings, conclusions and/or recommendations expressed in our publications are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.

PODCAST EPISODES ON NPS DISCOVERY: To hear more about NPS Discovery and our work, check out this recent podcast from CFSRE’s Mandi Mohr and Alex Krotulski who sat down with RTI and NIJ’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence [FTCoE, Award 2016-MU-BX-K110] and their Just Science podcast to discuss the analytical and interpretative challenges associated with emerging drug threats and NPS. A second podcast from Alex Krotulski with Narcotica is now available focusing on drug trends, combinations, and much more!