Illicit manufacture of very powerful drugs with effects similar to heroin and often many times more potent has created challenges for forensic toxicology laboratories and medical examiners in the United States according to Forensic Toxicologist Dr. Barry Logan.
Originating in the oversubscribing of prescription painkillers in the early part of the decade, undisciplined and often criminal prescribing patterns, and the increased availability of illicit opioids like heroin and more recently fentanyl and its analogs, has unleashed a new wave of tragedy on middle America. The increased demand for these potent and deadly drugs has fueled a new industry in designer drug manufacture in China with the United States as its target.
For the last eight years, toxicologist Dr. Barry Logan Executive Director of Pennsylvania’s Center for Forensic Science Research & Education has led efforts to rapidly identify, analyze and interpret toxicology lab findings of the presence of new opioids such as acryl fentanyl, carfentanil, 3-methylfentanyl, and about a dozen other chemical first cousins of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. Fentanyl itself was discovered by pharmacologist Dr. Paul Janssen in the 1960's as a potent painkiller effective in treating everything from post-surgical and cancer pain, to childbirth. Subsequently, clandestine chemists in China and Asia have made minor chemical modifications to the structure of the molecule to create sometimes even more potent analgesic drugs with more dangerous and profound side effects, but whose novel structures have not yet been scheduled or outlawed. This makes it difficult for authorities to effectively create and enforce laws to protect the public from these new toxic drugs. As one of the Country's leading toxicologists, Logan has led his team to the development of new and novel methods and technologies to help forensic science keep up with these illicit chemists.
A graduate of the University of Glasgow in Scotland, Dr. Logan has made more than 400 presentations at forensic science conferences throughout the United States and internationally. In addition to his day-to-day responsibilities with the Center for Forensic Science Research & Education Dr.Logan is Chief Scientist at NMS Labs, the nation's largest and most respected independent forensic toxicology laboratory. A former President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Dr. Logan is active in using his network to raise awareness of the importance of this rapidly developing toxicological challenge.
