Capture Various Forms of Fentanyl

Guests: Dr. Andrea Wiggins, S&T Chemical Biological Detection and Defense Program Manager; Travis Brown, S&T Program Manager for Forensics and Criminal Investigation; Dr. Laura Parker, S&T Senior Advisor on Sensors and Detection; Dan Conway, S&T Strategy and Policy Office; and Dr. Robert Ewing, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Senior Research Chemist

Host: Dave DeLizza, Science and Technology Directorate.

[00:00:00] Dr Andrea Wiggins: Using AI tools and applications, it will allow us a better footing to stay ahead of the curve of trying to capture all of the various forms of fentanyl that are being produced as well as any other illicit drug.

[00:00:13] Dave: Hi, I'm Dave and welcome to Tech Speak, a mini episode of the Technologically Speaking Podcast. Back in October, we visited the Customs and Border Protection Mariposa Port of Entry in Arizona for a field demo of a novel fentanyl detector designed to improve screening for illicit drugs. At the start, you heard Dr. Andrea Wiggins of S&T's Chemical Biological Detection and Defense Program. Let's jump into the conversation with Dr. Wiggins, Dan Conway of our Strategy and Policy Office, Program Manager for Forensics and Criminal Investigation, Travis Brown, Senior Advisor on Sensors and Detection, Dr. Laura Parker, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Senior Research Chemist, Dr. Robert Ewing, to hear more about how S&T technology investments are being leveraged at our ports of entry to disrupt the flow of dangerous synthetic opioids.

[00:00:58] Travis Brown: So recently, the White House and the National Security Council, challenged S&T to come together with the Department of Energy National Labs to determine what new technologies, what existing technologies could be applied, near term, to the challenges of fentanyl facing the United States. And of the many ideas that, that came out of the dialogue, we had there was related to vapor detection, from our colleagues at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories. And we're here today, at the port of entry, to test out this technology, learn new things, familiarize ourselves with the operations. The fentanyl detection is a very challenging problem. And part of our success and countering these issues will be collaboration across all of governments, including the national labs, industry partners and academia. So, it might be worth having a discussion now on, exactly how this technology works, how it's been adapted from other science within the department. And I think I'll turn it over to Robert to talk about that.

[00:02:08] Dr Robert Ewing: Years ago, we thought vapor detection of things like explosives was difficult, challenging, hard to do based on vapor pressure. Just the amount of vapor available to detect is limited. But through some internal funding at the National Lab, we first observed that about a decade ago, the ability to detect vapors at pretty low levels. And then S&T came in and helped support us and we worked collaboratively to develop the vapor detection of explosive materials. It uses mass spectrometry as the instrumentation. We looked at changes or modifications in the ionization process to gain the sensitivity we needed. We've taken that technology now that was developed for explosives and applied it to drugs that have a similar problem, similar challenges with vapor detection provides the ability to do non-contact detection. So, you can stand off a little bit less invasive. That's one of the advantages of vapor detection.

[00:03:00] Dan Conway: As researchers and scientists, what makes combating the flow of fentanyl so challenging? What are you guys seeing in terms of trends and perhaps new barriers that we weren't seeing just 24 or 36 months ago?

[00:03:13] Dr Andrea Wiggins: I would say that one of the challenges in this space is being able to keep up with our actors who are finding ways to cut fentanyl with other chemicals and/or compounds. Being able to ensure that we're able to have real time, accurate catalogs and libraries in our various detection systems is, is a challenge.

[00:03:35] Travis Brown: Yeah, I certainly agree with Andrea and I would add that, not only is it a, a chemistry problem, as the fentanyl compound changes, but the tactics that are used by transnational organized crime organizations to smuggle these narcotics into the country, they're also constantly changing, and they're reacting to what we are doing, and it's important to use the technology, the coordination with our partners to stay ahead of that.

[00:04:03] Dr Laura Parker: Another factor that we want to discuss is how the, just the whole landscape of narcotics and drugs, illicit substances has really changed with synthetic drug manufacturing. It's in the past you had to wait for the poppies to grow and to harvest. And in this era, being able to start with precursor chemicals and easily make narcotics, illicit substances has been a real challenge, with how quickly the drug cartels can adapt to the precursors that are available and the synthetic roots.

[00:04:42] Dan Conway: I want to turn to now, how much risk and how much threat our front, frontline operational agents face on a day to day and how important this work really is. How do you see this research and technology, if you will, transferring to the state and local operator, perhaps even our colleagues working at a shipping and mail facility? Or a port with large containers and cargo, any thoughts on that?

[00:05:08] Dr Andrea Wiggins: When we think about how we can safeguard them, knowing that they have to act very quickly, being able to provide essential decision support tools, such as vapor detection technologies, we definitely have to find where we're able to provide real time, accurate detection for those individuals, especially if they don't have the extensive scientific backgrounds to know the different characteristics and kind of the side effects of said, whether it's fentanyl or some other type of narcotic. I think it's a how do we take the fact that we have limited time, limited personnel sometimes for the processing aspect, but ensure that we're having safety and security of those that are trying to ensure our safety, as the American people. And unfortunately, it's going to come with advancement of the technology itself, but we also have to give them the tools that they can use, but also understand where it's not so cumbersome that they would be reluctant to want to rely upon these decision support tools. 

[00:06:02] Travis Brown: Yeah, and it's also related to, we want to be able to deploy technology so that we keep the stream of commerce moving. We're sitting here at the port of entry now we're watching all these trucks roll by that we're having to talk over. And if we all like to get our packages on time, we'd like to have our goods delivered when we want it. And we want our technologies, whether it be detection, whether it be targeting specific bad actors, we want that to happen seamlessly without interrupting the flow of commerce.

[00:06:32] Dan Conway: Robert, can you touch on the actual technology, how will that maybe change the security operator?

[00:06:39] Dr Robert Ewing: I think it could be viewed as an extra tool. We're very cautious, right? Every time you add another tool, it can take more time. It's perceived to take more time. And our goal is to develop a technology that can maybe scan a broader set of packages at once, the vapor detection piece, the back of a cargo, so you can help out with the detection while not having to have extra manpower or slow commerce down. 

[00:07:02] Dan Conway: I want to turn to the conversation we're having today and really; I want you to think through what's missing in today's conversation that you would like to see. So, how do you view this conversation as maybe changing as we move forward? And what would you like to see that we're not talking about today?

[00:07:17] Travis Brown: I would have to circle back and talk about the cooperation and, we could not have conducted the demonstration and the data collection we've done today without the close partnership and cooperation with Customs and Border Protection and continuing to strengthen and grow those relationships across DHS, with Coast Guard, with Homeland Security Investigations, with other parts of the government is critical in the research. The other part I would have to say would be the need to invest funding in the research. Investing in near term technologies. What can be delivered, in a matter of weeks, months? Non-technology solutions. How can we apply R&D to process and work flows to improve efficiencies there. And then we also need to keep in mind that we need to make those investments in long term research. So that we can stay ahead of the threat and the next variant of fentanyl that we see crossing our border.

[00:08:20] Dr Andrea Wiggins: I think the other thing is, too, is also truly understanding our stakeholders mission spaces. Oftentimes we are able to come in with a fresh pair of eyes and perhaps see and identify challenges that perhaps the operator, being deep into the details may not necessarily see where we're able to provide an innovative approach based on maybe another effort that we've worked with another component partner that might have applicability in this particular topic. And I think really fostering, continue fostering of that stakeholder partnership and collaboration is essential. 

[00:08:50] Dr Laura Parker: I'll follow up with Andrea's comment about leveraging other partners. And, um, there's a lot going on in other fields like environmental science and other areas that we could really look at and see, are they doing research on emerging technologies and maturing them to a point where we can pick them up and look at applying them to our problem space? 

[00:09:13] Dan Conway: Great, thank you. And thank you all for joining this conversation.

[00:09:17] Dave: Great discussion. If you want to learn more about this critical work, visit the S&T website, dhs.gov slash science and technology. Thanks for listening and be sure to follow us at DHS SciTech, DHS SCI, TE, CH. Bye!