A new narcotics laboratory has been established in Samoa.
The lab can only test for marijuana but the Prime Minister says the government hopes to upgrade it to enable the testing of other hard drugs such as methamphetamine.
Talamua online reports that the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa is running the lab and serves as an independent asupport service to the police and the courts in narcotic cases.
Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi says the government will fund the research organisation in the current financial year to allow it to buy a gas chromatography and a mass spectrometry to identify and quantify hard narcotics.
Two scientists will be trained overseas in the testing of marijuana.
