Scientists from the Ministry of Public Security’s Biochemical and Professional Document Institute have introduced a new invention – five-minute drug-testing stick.

This is the product of a state-level research project in the 2006-2010 period worth 3.7 billion dong carried out by Doctor and Colonel Hoang Manh Hung and his co-workers. With this product, police can quickly detect the origin of and production method used to create an illegal narcotic within five minutes.

Hung said that this is the first time Vietnam has been able to produce quick sticks to test drugs within 5-10 minutes. Moreover, the Vietnamese product is far cheaper than imported products. The price for the local product is around 11,000 per stick and it is 42,000 dong for an imported stick.

According to Hung, this project has helped save around 2 billion for the state budget. This project, named “Research to discover and trace the sources of heroin and ecstasy” will be pursued until 2010.