I think my favorite part of P-Chem was when we were discussing Quantum Mechanics and proved that there is a finite possibility that I could run full speed right into a wall and actually go right through it.  Of course, the probability is so small that there are no words to describe it, but it's not zero.  

Sounds pretty interesting.  I'm trying to decide whether or not I should upload my Mass Spectra for a positive cocaine determination I found while interning at a drug-testing laboratory my senior year of college.  There is no identification about who the specimen came from, but I'm still unsure of the legality.  I think I can post it since it's just a clear-as-day positive Mass Spectrograph of benzoylecgonine.  

I'll go through my .pdf files and make sure that there are no identifiable marks on it.  I'll try and get some up as they are incredibly neat and clear as day.  If this isn't a positive result, then nothing is.  

Cool... so did you work in a forensics lab or something?

Hmm... cocaine in a drug testing facility.... are you sure its not a forensics lab or are you guys making fun stuff on the side... unless cocaine is coming over the counter tomorrow hehe.

Hmm... cocaine in a drug testing facility.... are you sure its not a forensics lab or are you guys making fun stuff on the side... unless cocaine is coming over the counter tomorrow hehe.

Heh.  I worked for a state run equine toxicology lab my senior year.  The lab performed drug tests on race horses, as well as drug screenings on the jockeys and employees of the state.  So on a typical day I would be doing a Drugs Of Abuse screen on multiple human urine samples, and if a positive were found in the screening I would also go on to perform the confirmation testing on the GC/MS setup.  

Umm... so were the horses or the jockeys on coke?... just making sure.

lol.  We tested both the horses and the jockeys/employees for drugs of abuse.  A horse in a state sponsored race must be 100% clear of all drugs in order to be considered valid.  You'd be amazed at what some owners will feed their horses in an attempt to cheat and win.  The jockeys and employees at the race tracks are drug tested per state regulations.  During my internship, I did not once come across a positive drug screening on horse urine samples.  I did, however, come across a few different positive screenings on human urine samples, though only one of them really stood out as positive.

That positive sample is the one I have all the Gas Chromatographs and Mass Spectra for.  It was so blatently clear that even a non-chemist could understand it as a positive.  The procedure that's used for drug testing is that first a pretty non-specific testing is done of the urine via an Immunoassay technique.  (We used an Enzyme Linked Immuno-Sorbant Assay, or ELISA, screening).  If a positive result is found in the preliminary screenings, it must be confirmed by a more specific, "fingerprint like" machine in order to be considered a legal positive by most sophisticated courts.  So in our screening, we found that this particular urine specimen was positive for benzoylecgonine, the metabolite for cocaine.  Upon getting the screening results, we then ran it through the GC/MS along with a negative control, positive control, blank, and a known sample of pure benzoylecgonine.  By comparing the graphs and spectra from all those runs, we could easily see the positive result.  I should have the graphs and spectra up sometime this weekend.