The Utility of Drug Testing in Urine

By Laureen Marinetti, PhD, F-ABFT As part of its whole case approach, Axis Forensic Toxicology includes urine drug testing alongside blood testing in both the Comprehensive Panel with Analyte Assurance™ and Drugs of Abuse Panel. The standard urine screen typically...

A New Fentanyl Derivative: ortho-Methylfentanyl

By Kevin Shanks, M.S., D-ABFT-FT As we have discussed on this blog several times in the past, novel psychoactive substances (NPS) come in different varieties, which include cannabinoids, stimulants, opioids, benzodiazepines, and hallucinogens. One of Axis Forensic...

Axis Recognizes 2025 Postdoctoral Fellows

Axis is pleased to recognize the four Forensic Medicine Fellows that recently completed Axis’  toxicology rotation.  The rotation  is a week-long virtual program where participants reviewed many aspects of a modern forensic toxicology operation, including the...

MATT 2025 Recap: Ketamine

At this year’s MATT meeting, Dr. Laureen Marinetti spoke to attendees about how to differentiate between ketamine used illicitly versus ketamine used medically.  She also discussed the origin of medical and illicit ketamine.  Ketamine was developed in 1962 for use as...

MATT 2025 Recap: Nitazene Analogs

At this year’s MATT meeting, Stuart Kurtz spoke to attendees about the prevalence of nitazene analogs and the concentrations at which Axis detects them. We have previously discussed what nitazenes are in blog posts (see links below).  As a reminder, they are potent mu...