New device detects drugs from fingerprints

From CNET:

The power of self-incrimination is now at your fingertips, thanks to a new device out of the U.K. that can test for drugs in a person's system simply by taking a fingerprint.

The technology developed by Intelligent Fingerprinting, a spin-off company from the University of East Anglia in in Norwich, England, can simultaneously confirm a subject's identity and detect the presence of a number of drugs, including cocaine, cannabis, methadone, and nicotine.

The tip-off to the presence of drugs has less to do with the actual fingerprints, and more with the sweat that is secreted through the pores of the fingertips and then detected using dyed antibodies. Those antibodies are applied to the fingertips via gold nanoparticles on the device.