The world’s first portable fingerprint-based drug test – which works by analyzing sweat from a fingerprint to determine if someone has recently used cocaine, opiates, amphetamines or cannabis – will be launching in Italy this Friday, June 8.

According to a press release for the new device, it will “bring new levels of convenience, hygiene and speed to the drug rehabilitation testing market in Italy.”

A video showing the “revolutionary” Intelligent Fingerprinting fingerprint-based drug testing in action is available here.

The device will be shown at a seminar this Friday that’s “Targeted at a specialist audience, including drug rehabilitation and law enforcement”.

The Intelligent Fingerprinting solution is the “industry’s only end-to-end drug testing solution based on fingerprint sweat analysis, and is the result of several years of intense R&D and €13.5 million in development funding”, states the press release. The solution features “a Drug Screening Cartridge that detects specific drugs or their metabolites in the sweat collected from a fingerprint; the highly sensitive and robust Reader 1000 which provides a positive or negative result for each drug in the test within just eight minutes; and a Fingerprint Collection Kit for Laboratory Analysis (if a laboratory confirmation test is required).” The system is said to be “particularly quick and easy-to-use, while its non-invasive and hygienic nature makes it an ideal solution for rehabilitation drug testing scenarios.”

“Traditional drug testing methods, particularly those that require the collection of body fluid samples, can be both expensive and difficult to administer across Drug Rehabilitation Centre environments,” said Di.RA.LAB’s Gianluca Zafrani. “That’s why we’re excited to showcase an entirely new fingerprint-based method of drug testing at our June 8 Intelligent Fingerprinting seminar in Fiumicino. We look forward to a successful seminar and the opportunity to demonstrate how fingerprint-based drug testing can prove a smart choice for organisations such as law enforcement and drug rehabilitation service providers.”

Below is an explanation of how exactly the device works: