The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has donated equipment on metrology standards to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in a bid to harness its scientific and technological techniques in its anti-illegal drugs campaign.
In a statement, the PDEA said that the donated instruments will be of big help in ensuring the reliability of its drug forensic results and create improved methods in its forensic analysis.
The equipment include 18 sets of test weights and 18 units of digital thermo hygrometer, which will equip the PDEA’s drug forensic laboratories and chemists to practice accuracy, consistency, uniformity, reliability and comparability in measuring samples of seized pieces of drug evidence.
Apart from the donation, a document that provides guidance on how to estimate measurement uncertainty in drug evidence weight reporting, was officially endorsed by the DOST to PDEA.
PDEA Director General Moro Virgilio Lazo and Dr. Annabelle Briones, Director of the DOST-ITDI signed the Deed of Donation in the presence of key officers from both parties.
The PDEA also started the training day of its newly-hired “Drug Forensic Chemists and Dangerous Drugs Regulation Officers (DDROs)’’ to acquaint them with the agency’s guidelines in their line of work.
In the approximately six-month course, the PDEA pointed out that it “is a specialized training designed to prepare the newly-onboarded chemists for forensic work, in particular-qualitative examination of dangerous drugs, controlled precursors and essential chemicals (CPECs); and acquaint themselves in the handling and preservation of seized drug evidence; concept of “chain of custody”; jurisprudence; and proper disposition of confiscated illegal drugs.’’
On the other hand, the PDEA pointed out that the DDRO-trainees shall be taught the proper evaluation, processing and issuance of licenses and permits to industry partners, medical practitioners, pharmaceutical companies, suppliers and retailers engaged in the importation, distribution, manufacture, prescription, dispensing and selling CPECs.