'More trials' for ketamine swab test
A company claims to have developed a saliva test to show whether someone has taken the illegal tranquilliser ketamine, and hopes the government will use it to check on suspected drug-drivers. But a lawmaker says more testing of the device is needed.
Andrew Cheng Kar-foo, who sits on the Legislative Council's transport panel, was reacting to the claim by company First Test that trials of its 11cm-long swab stick found it to be 87 per cent accurate in identifying people that had used ketamine in the three days prior to being tested.
The test, which was performed on 72 staff and inmates of two drug rehabilitation centres in the city between July and September, correctly picked 21 positive cases but missed three.
First Test said the saliva test was more accurate than urine tests. Among 16 positive cases who also donated urine samples, four went undetected in the urine test. The company said while a urine test could only identify a ketamine concentration of 1,000 ng/ml (nanograms per millilitre), the new test could pick up anything more than 15 ng/ml.
The company's spokesman, Andrew Wong Chi-cheung, said First Test had approached the government to see if the test could be used to check whether drivers had taken drugs. Under a government proposal that is currently under public consultation police would be able to ask drivers to go to a police station to perform a series of physical tests, including walking heel-to-toe along a straight line, counting their steps and standing on one leg. Wong said his test was better, as the physical tests could be subjective and would only work best when performed indoors.
To use the swab stick, a person must not eat or drink anything for 15 minutes before the test. The results are known in five minutes.
A spokeswoman for the Transport and Housing Bureau said the accuracy and suitability of these tests were yet to be determined, and that the government would continue to search for suitable testing devices.
First Test's saliva-testing stick would cost HK$40-50.
