https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180705143928.htm

To help with this situation, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the German Federal Criminal Police Office (the Bundeskriminalamt, or BKA) and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency have launched a website where forensic chemists can share data on new drug variants, also called drug analogs. Described in Forensic Chemistry, the NPS Data Hub (NPS stands for Novel Psychoactive Substances) includes the chemical structures of drug analogs and their chemical signatures, which are the keys to identifying them in the lab.

Being able to identify drugs quickly is critical. "If people start overdosing and dying from a new drug analog, authorities need to identify it as quickly as possible," said Aaron Urbas, the NIST research chemist who led the project. "If you want to focus your resources effectively, you need to know what you're looking for."