“I guarantee you that at the end of this course [Forensic Chromatography] that you will know more than 95% of the people who run GCs on a daily basis” Dr. Lee Polite, MBA, PhD
“If you want to make sure that justice happens in the courtroom, you have to understand the science at least as well as the scientists presenting it. If you take these courses, you will know the science, law and courtroom advocacy better than anyone else anywhere.” Justin J. McShane, JD, F-AIC
About the courses:
The Hands-on ACS Forensic Chromatography Course will teach you the classroom theory that underlies chromatography in general, as well as the specific theories that allow for headspace analysis and how Flame Ionization Detector, and Mass Spectrometry works. You will get to see the instruments used, and run tests yourself.
The Hands-on ACS Forensic Drug Analysis Course will teach you how seized drugs are analyzed and how the scientific opinion is formed that leads to the laboratory conclusion. This is for all drugs of abuse including illicit drugs. You will get to see the instruments used, and run tests yourself. Solid Drug Dose is as the name implies. It is about the analysis of seized items that are thought to be drugs. It is the evalution of solids, liquids, powders and vegetable products. It goes into the synthetic drugs such as K2 or Spice. It answers the question of how can the police know that a white powder in the bag is really cocaine or if it is harmless baking soda. It focuses on the analytical techniques that are used in that field such as balances, colormetric testing, FTIR, TLC, microscopy, and GC-MS. It is very heavy into GC-MS. Because there is so much GC-MS work in it, it is a prerequisite for the DUID course.
The DUID course focuses on the analysis of biological fluids (blood, urine, hair, oral fluid) for drugs of abuse. As the name implies it focuses on DUID from the motorist’s point of view. It is one full day of instrumental analysis on the qualitative and quantitative analysis. Plus, there are 2 full days of pharmacology both the time course of the drug in the body (pharmacokinetics) and the drugs impact on psychomotor function (pharmacodynamics).
The Forensic HPLC course opens the gateway to the future of DUID defense. Eventually, most biological fluids will be analyzed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) coupled with mass spectrometry (LC/MS for short). Remember that as the sophistication of the technique increases, so does the number of things that must be done properly in order to generate valid data. In this class, you will develop a firm understanding of the fundamentals of liquid chromatography and get lots of practical hands-on experience you’ve come to expect from Axion courses! You will get a chance to work with modern HPLC systems by analyzing real samples and will learn how to interpret the data. Thus you will be able to spot errors in data that others have generated, and thereby vigorously defend your clients.
This course is dedicated to former Professor Emeritus Dr. Harold McNair who was on the faculty and taught this course. He was the first person to earn a PhD in Gas Chromatography in the United States and the first person to run a gas chromatography in the United States.