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Fingertip Drug Analysis: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:lincolndrug.jpg|link=Thinkin' Lincoln|right]]
The detectives have raided a house and found some suspicious white powder or liquid. One of them puts his or her finger in it, then either sniffs it or tastes it. They pronounce it's heroin or cocaine or whatever. Or if it's phony drugs, they announce [[Beat Bag|"Powdered sugar!"]]
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== Film ==
* The [[James Bond (
* Spoofed in ''[[The Princess Bride (
** Though it should be noted that in the book he identified it as iocaine ''because'' of the lack of any odor and the fact that a man obviously was killed by a fast-acting poison beside it. Notably he says "Iocaine, I bet my life on it." meaning he couldn't decidedly identify it, but given the circumstances and evidence, made an educated guess.
* Subverted in the movie ''Showtime'', which shows an undercover detective verifying a drug buy with a small chemical apparatus, and later, when William Shatner as Himself demonstrates the Fingertip Method, he is met with the question "And what if it was cyanide?"
* Frank Oz identifies the drugs planted on Dan Aykroyd in ''[[Trading Places]]'' as PCP using this method. Which is insane considering what even a tiny amount of PCP can do.
* Also spoofed in [[There Is No Such Thing
* In the third [[The Terminator|Terminator]] movie, the T-X analyzes blood samples this way. A bit of a variation in that she knows it's blood (der), but has to find out whose DNA it is.
** Justified in the T-X is a machine and as such it is entirely reasonable that it would be built to be able to perform that test with built-in equipment.
** Moreover, unlike a human cop she's highly unlikely to be poisoned as a result of tasting something nasty.
* Spoofed in ''[[
* The buddy-cop movie ''[[Tango and Cash]]'' opens with [[Sylvester Stallone|Ray Tango]] arresting two punks, who have driven an oil truck well outside his jurisdiction. The highway patrol arrives on the scene and chides him for his recklessness, and a search of the truck reveals nothing but oil. They ask if he thinks [[Shout
{{quote| Tango: "Mm...wanna get high?"}}
* In the movie version of [[Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince]], Dumbledore does this to some blood that's dripped onto Harry's forehead from the ceiling, but doesn't immediately comment. After he locates Slughorn, he identifies it as dragon's blood (which, as the alchemist who discovered the twenty uses of the substance, [[Fridge Brilliance|makes sense]]) and reveals that it's what made him positive the ransacked house was faked.
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== Literature ==
* Spoofed in [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld
{{quote| Detritus blinked at his finger, which was still white with the dust, and sidled over to Carrot. "Did I just lick dis?" he said.<br />
"Er, yes," said Carrot.<br />
"T'ank goodness for dat," said Detritus, blinking furiously. "'D hate to believe dis room was ''really'' full of giant hairy spide... weeble weeble sclup ..." }}
** Ironic especially since Deterius was the one who relayed the fate of Sergeant Flint [[Who Would Be Stupid Enough...?|and stated how dumb it was]]
*** Earlier, Vimes found a mysterious bag of white powder in his desk but explicitly refused to taste it, instead asking the on-staff alchemist to see if it was arsenic. Shortly afterwards Carrot did use this method. On a mysterious bag of white powder he'd just seen Vimes stuff a handful from into his mouth. It turned out to be sugar, Vimes having swapped out the bag for one from the canteen.
* ''[[
* In ''Agents of Light and Darkness'', John Taylor performs the fingertip touch-and-taste test on a statue, and confirms it's a human who's been transformed into salt. Only in the [[Nightside]]...
* Mentioned in [[Stephen Fry]]'s autobiography ''Moab Is My Washpot'', when he recounts the head boy at his prep school catching him with stolen sweets.
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"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure you haven't. And what have we got here then?"<br />
If the memory weren't so absurdly anachronistic, I could almost swear that Pollock ripped open one of the flying saucers and put his tongue to the sherbet like a Hollywood cop tasting white powder. }}
* In [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''[[The
* ''The Curious Misadventures Of Feltus Ovalton'' has Percy about to do this to a packet of concentrated itching powder; fortunately, Feltus stops him.
* Maureen does this (cautiously) in Robert Heinlein's ''To Sail Beyond the Sunset'' while searching out-of-control teen daughter Priscilla's room, when she finds a bag of white powder. She concludes it's cocaine from the numbing effect (she did also find what she decided was marijuana). She briefly considers turning the stash over to the police in hopes they'll find her daughter's dealer, but decides it would be pretty close to impossible to convince the police the stash is her daughter's rather than her own, and flushes it.
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* Also spoofed in one episode of ''[[Police Squad!]]'' -- presented with a bag of white powder, Norberg identifies it as a drug from a fingertip taste. Then, while the action continues in the foreground, he takes another fingertip, and another, and then a ''big'' fingerload, and starts rubbing it on his gums... When we next see him, he's high as a kite and draped around a piece of furniture.
* A variation on the trope occurred on ''[[Barney Miller]]'' when Barney suspects some brownies baked by Wojo's girlfriend have hashish in them. He asks Harris to test the brownies, which Harris does... by eating one, rather than sending it to the lab as Barney had expected.
* Has appeared a couple of times on ''[[
* The Doctor does this with ''blood'', even identifying the blood group, in the ''[[
** Ten developed a bit of a habit of um... licking things. Not necessarily always for diagnostic purposes.
*** Eleven does this as well. With a shed. To calculate how long it's been since it was built.
* In the TV show ''Sisters'', one of the sisters, Teddy, and her boyfriend come across some some drugs hidden in a shipment of clothes from her clothing line. The boyfriend open one of packages and tastes the drug. Teddy asks if it's heroin and he replies he doesn't know, that's just what they do on TV.
* In an episode of ''[[The X
** Mulder does this ''all the time,'' actually, including with some (fake) blood in "Revelations". Scully's face is a wonder to behold.
* Fraser of ''[[Due South]]'' does this constantly, much to his partner's irritation.
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'''Gene:''' Because he's on it. }}
** This is very anachronistic. Heroin was a major problem as of the turn of the century, much less the 1970s. Heroin just seems to make a comeback every few decades... the 1930s, 1950s, 1970s, and 2000s have all seen big comebacks for heroin.
* In one episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', Thirteen does this when trying to track down what their patient's cocaine was cut with.
** Justified, however, in that Thirteen has a chronic case of death wish.
* ''[[Star Trek:
** On ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' Sisko once gave Gul'Dukat back a bottle of poisoned wine. Weyoun took a swig and declared it 'quite toxic'. He then explained that Vorta are immune to most poisons.
* Averted on ''[[Law and Order SVU]]''. When Elliot is undercover as a white-collar drug dealer, he "tests the product" of a potential supplier by ''feeling'' the powder's consistency. Asked why he doesn't taste it instead, he claims that they do random drug tests at his workplace; he only sells cocaine, he can't risk using it.
* Beckett does the test and finds heroin in ''[[Castle]]''. Castle comments on how badass she looked doing it.
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* On ''[[The Incredible Hulk]]'' David taste-tested some white powder he found on his foot after transforming back from being the Hulk. (Hulk had rampaged through a warehouse full of drugs.) Possibly justified in that he ''is'' a [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|doctor]].
* [[MacGyver]] tests a suspected drug sample this way, only to find out that it's keratin (powdered rhino horn).
* Played for laughs on ''[[
{{quote| '''Tim:''' Hang on a minute--''(sniffs)''--dang! That's certain substances, that is! How stupid...Graeme, have a sniff of that.<br />
'''Graeme:''' Huh? Oh, that's--''(sniffs -- collapses, then gets up, looking completely spaced out)''--hooh! Where'd you get the stuff, man? Cool, baby, cool... }}
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== Webcomics ==
* Parodied on a ''[[VG Cats]]'' comic [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=212 strip] about ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]''. His lovely female assistant finds residue from "some mysterious [white] liquid" all over his computer and tastes it. She exclaims, "Salty...must be blood!"
* Parodied in [http://www.thinkin-lincoln.com/index.php?strip_id=585 this strip] of ''[[Thinkin' Lincoln]]'' (see page image).
== Western Animation ==
* Occurs in ''[[
* A weird example from ''[[King of the Hill]]'': When Hank suspects Dale topped off his mower's gas tank with water, [[Fat Idiot|Bill]] takes a drink from the fuel line.
{{quote| '''Bill''' No, this is soda Hank. (licks the outside of the tube) That's just grease.}}
* ''[[
* On ''[[
{{quote| '''Principal Lewis:''' ''(does the fingertip taste test)'' Pure Peruvian marching powder. Grown on the Andes, north slope. I'd say it's about 80% baby laxative. Yeap, this junk means only one thing: Esteban Mortilla is back in business!}}
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