Can you buy a "street lab" machine for drug testing

[cowardescent]

I've seen it used on border security shows (Australia Border Force) where they analyze the composition of a drug at the airport. Assuming an individual can buy one, would it be worth it and at a reasonable price?

 

[falsifiedhypothesi]

What you're probably talking about is a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer. We don't allow price discussion but i will tell you that unless you are a very wealthy user you are not going to be able to afford one.

A more realistic option would be to get a reagent kit, it's a liquid compound that you drop onto the substance and it'll turn a certain color depending on what is present in your substance. This isn't as accurate as a GC/MS machine but it's at least 1000x more affordable.

 

[kleinerkiffer]

A raman spectrometer might work as well and should be cheaper than a GC/MS, but it's still four 0 you're looking at

As falsifiedhypothesi said, reagent kits (Marquis, Mandelin, Ehrlich, Liebermanm, Froehde) is your best bet

 

[Limpet_Chicken]

UV-VIS or IR spectrometers can be in the few hundred range.

Or even possible to build your own. Look online, someone has come up with one, turned it into a crowdfunded project, a portable spectrophotometer, IR, I think, that interfaces with an iPhone. Written the drivers for it and all.