To provide additional resources to assist in validation development, this paper provides a template that can be adopted or adapted for implementation of DART-MS, or other ambient ionization mass spectrometry techniques, for qualitative seized drug analysis.
Direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) is an increasingly employed tool for a wide range of forensic applications, including seized drug analysis. A significant body of research surrounds DART-MS for the analysis of seized drugs and how it can be used to address many of the challenges caused by the increased presence of emerging drugs and novel psychoactive substances. A lack of available resources to help address validation, operation, training, and data interpretation needs is just one of the hurdles that laboratories face when adopting new technologies, such as DART-MS. (Publisher abstract provided)