Current issues include the drugs and chemicals of concern, laboratory safety, sensitivity and accuracy, quality assurance, scientific literature, professional liaison, stewardship of resources, and drug impairment. Issues related to analytic techniques, quantitation, and identification include drug extraction, immunoassay, the automation and handling of unconventional samples, chromatography, mass spectrometry, capillary electrophoresis, and the use of databases. Issues related to the interpretation of results include drug impairment, drug recognition expert systems, love drugs, the significance of drugs in hair, the use of cocaine psychosis or other drug issues as a defense in major crimes, post-mortem drug redistribution, and death from natural causes. 99 references