SHENYANG — The Chinese Ministry of Public Security has passed an appraisal of a hand-held drug detector developed by researchers of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The device can give quick test results to identify morphine, methamphetamine and ketamine and assess the quantity.

Independently developed by scientists with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics affiliated to the CAS, the portable device is fitted with a small fluorescence detection module and uses a fluorescence labeling reagent to show the test results.

The device is able to detect as little as one nanogram of morphine in one milliliter of substance. It takes just over five minutes to analyze a sample, and the device has a 96 percent accuracy rate.

According to the researchers, the drug detector is cost-effective and can be used for the rapid detection of drugs on the anti-drug frontlines in border areas.