Advantages and disadvantages of presumptive test Essay

Advantages and disadvantages of presumptive test - Essay Example Presumptive test yields immediate results to the testing staff. The staff therefore acquires instant snapshots of results and consequently decides on whether to issue a normal remedy or not (Paik 2011 p. 78). It is imperative that the test enables forensic drug tests to identify the possibility of a particular drug substance. Presumptive test applies principles of gas chromatography in isolating suspected drug from a given sample of blood. The second advantage that comes with presumptive test is that it helps forensic drug test technicians to narrow down possibilities in the suspected substance (Grine & Rackley 2010, p.14). After narrowing down the number of possible tests, technicians can easily decide on which particular test to conduct rather than use of many unguided trial and error experiments. Limiting number of possible test is beneficial to an organization in terms of resource allocation and time. Similarly, presumptive tests help to minimize the amount of materials and test reagents that trial and error tests would have absorbed.Forensic drug test technicians benefits from ability of presumptive tests to identify evidences that naked eyes may fail to see. Ability to reveal chemical properties of sample analyte results from use of various chemicals such as barium chloride reagent, potassium hydroxide and silver nitrate reagent (Paik 2011, p. 78). These reagents give technicians specific observable results that enable them to observe what naked eyes cannot observe.