Amid recent celebrities’ drug scandals, netizens look into the process of hair examination during drug test
Recently, netizens on SNS sites and online communities brought up the story about the drug investigation revealed by drug prosecutor-turned-lawyer Bae Han-jin in a tvN program on July 26th.
Lawyer Bae said, “Conducting a drug investigation is very challenging due to the resistance of those involved in drug cases”, adding “Securing objective is very important. This process includes urine and hair tests”.
He explained, “When conducting a hair test, they need to collect about 100-300 hairs”, adding “The amount of hair taken also depends on the type of drug test. For one type of drug, 200 strands of hair should be collected. If the suspect took various drugs, a larger quantity may be needed”.
Regarding the question, “Is it necessary to pull out the hairs? Why don’t they just cut them?”, the lawyer firmly replied, “No. When a person takes drugs, the drug ingredients go into the blood and remain in the hair roots. That’s why hair should be collected with roots”.
When asked if bleached or dyed hair could affect the drug test result like in dramas, lawyer Bae said, “It hasn’t been confirmed but some people actually bleached their hair”.
Netizens who encountered the video showed various reactions, such as “Pulling out 300 hairs is like tearing the head”, “Then how do they conduct the drug test on bald people?”, “So at least 100 hairs should be taken”, etc.
Meanwhile, the police recently booked Lee Sun-kyun on suspicion that he has administered more than 2 types of drugs, including marijuana, at the residence of a hostess bar director since the beginning of this year. Researchers at the National Forensic Services have received 50-100 strands of Lee Sun-kyun’s hair and will begin examining the samples using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.
Source: Insight
