Drug overdose involves more than 1 0 percent of emergency room (ER) cases, and a method to rapidly identify and quantify the abused drug is critical to the ability ofthe ER physician to administer the appropriate care. To this end, we have been developing a surface-enhanced Raman (SER) active material capable of detecting target drugs at physiological concentrations in urine (nglmL). The SER-active material consists of a metal-doped sol-gel that provides not only a million fold increase in sensitivity but also reproducible measurements. The porous silica network offers a unique environment for stabilizing SER active metal particles and the high surface area increases the interaction between the analyte and metal particles. The sol-gel has been coated on the inside walls of glass sample vials, such that urine specimens may simply be introduced for analysis. Here we present the surface-enhanced Raman spectra of a series ofbarbiturates, actual urine specimens, and a drug "spiked" urine specimen. The utility ofpH adjustment to suppress dominant biochemicals associated with urine is also presented.

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