ABSTRACT
Because alcohol is by far the most widely abused drug in western societies and in many developing countries, this chapter begins with methods of detecting alcohol and monitoring alcohol intake. The very rapid excretion of alcohol and the lack of any longer lasting specific metabolites mean that breath or urine testing are of very limited value for this purpose. Biomechanical devices include the alcopatch—a sweat-absorbing, activated charcoal pad that is applied to the skin with a tamper-evident tape—and an electronic recording device attached to the skin which continuously samples alcohol in sweat and is worn rather like a small 24 hour electrocardiogram recorder. Unlike urine samples, hair samples can easily be collected by medical or counseling staff during an ordinary consultation or counseling session. The whole process takes barely a minute and there is no risk to staff from contamination with addiction-related viruses.
