Development and validation of new analytical or data tools for seized drug analysis require demonstration of the approach's ability to accurately detect the components of complex, realistic drug mixtures. However, gaining access to these types of samples, or the data from these types of samples, can be difficult. To help address this gap, the Characterized Authentic Drug Samples (CADS) project aims to: 1) source authentic seized drug samples from collaborating forensic laboratories, 2) characterize the samples using a variety of analytical tools, and 3) make available small amounts of the samples, as well as the corresponding data, to researchers and practitioners.

This dataset provides raw and processed data for all CADS samples. The data for each panel is contained in a single folder (i.e., CADS Panel 1) that consists of subfolders containing: 1) Raw DART-MS data (.netCDF file format) for the samples in both positive and negative ionization mode. (Folder titled DART) 2) Processed DART-MS spectra (.txt format) of the samples in both positive and negative ionization mode. (Folder titled DART) 3) Raw GC-MS data (.mzXML format) for the samples, relevant standards, carbon ladders, and positive controls. (Folder titled GCMS) 4) Exported GC-FID chromatograms (.txt format) for the samples, relevant standards, carbon ladders, and positive controls. (Folder titled GCFID) 5) Raw FTIR data (.dpt format) for the samples. (Folder titled FTIR)

Within each subfolder there is a .txt file that explains the file naming scheme for that technique. Also, for GC-MS and GC-FID this files contains the link between carbon ladders and samples.