A BOOST FOR NARCOTICS OFFICERS

SALT LAKE CITY - Chemists have come up with a new way to determine the
country of origin of a cocaine sample with supreme accuracy. The drug bears
distinctive isotope-ratio signatures for carbon and nitrogen as well as
patterns of trace alkaloids that are peculiar to the region where it was grown.

Combined with existing techniques that identify processing methods of
different regions, this will allow forensic scientists "to determine the
distribution of an illegal drug as well as to identify new coca-producing
regions," explains a report by James Ehleringer at the University of Utah,
in Salt Lake City.

Stable isotope ratios have been used before to determine the source of a
variety of materials, from migrating butterflies to emeralds.