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What does a cup of tea have to do with fighting the global heroin trade?
That's the question being answered by Dr John Watling and his team of research scientists at the University of Western Australia.
Their theory is simple: if they can buy a packet of tea from a supermarket and use science to work out where it was grown, then they should be able to do the same with cannabis and heroin.
Why tea?
"It's much, much easier to import," says Dr Watling.
"We started using tea simply because Australian customs really didn't think it was a good idea for us to import cannabis and heroin and we wanted to establish the precedent and the concept that we could take a natural product and trace it back to its origin. "We can take the tea back to the plantation of origin."
"If it is grown in Darjeeling in the Darjeeling area it is grown at this particular plantation because we have samples of those plantations. We have finger prints of particular plantations around India and from around 800 plantations around the world."
This technique is known as "geographical provenancing" and Dr Watling says it can be used to ensure the quality of imported goods and establish the authenticity of exported Australian products.
Dr Watling says the science of geographical provenancing has improved exponentially over the last three decades.
But, there's scepticism from one man who lives and breathes the tea trade.
Anselm Perera is the Managing Director of Mlesna (Ceylon) Ltd. His company is based in Sri Lanka and imports tea leaves from the Darjeeling region of India before exporting them to Australia.
"Darjeeling is a very large area which has 83 estates in the region starting from Aloobari and running up to the 83rd estate which is known as Wah/Tukwar.
"Having estates on this scale makes it an almost impossible task for the researchers to analyse which estate produces which tea on a chemical basis."
Mr Perera concedes science should be able to narrow the tea's origin to the broader Darjeeling region.
However, in this regard, he rates his taste buds alongside any scientific equipment.
"From a taster's perspective, we can taste and confirm whether the tea is a true Darjeeling or not."
Claims
No matter who you believe, Dr Watling says there's value in determining the origin of tea.
"Tea is a very prestigious crop, there's a heck of a lot of money involved internationally, millions and millions of dollars are spent on tea. There are hundreds of thousands of people involved in making and growing tea worldwide.
"What we did in fact find is that in the case of some of the more expensive teas, a significant amount more of that tea goes to market than is ever grown, so obviously there is some fraudulent activity associated with the sale and export of these types of teas."
However, it's hoped the real value in the research will be to assist police in their efforts to crack down on the drug trade.
"Internally within Australia we've looked at things like heroin, working with the chemistry centre in Perth and working with the Australian federal and state police."
Dr Watling says his team can already determine where marijuana is grown.
"Marijuana will pick up material from the soil in which it is grown or from hydroponics if it's grown artificially in somebody's attic and will pick up a trace element signature that is related to the fertilizers that go into the soil in which it's grown."
"If you grow marijuana in a particular soil type, you'll get an indication of the geology and the soil type in the marijuana. So when you look at the crop itself you can actually say it's likely to be grown in this particular geographical area."
Barrister and Associate Professor at UWA, Judith Fordham says the technique could be invaluable in prosecuting drug dealers.
"If heroin can be proven to have come from a particular geographic region and the suspect or accused and their passport or tickets have traveled to that region (ie heroin from the so-called golden triangle) then that adds strong evidence to the case against them."
"Also if a person is caught with cannabis or heroin, and is suspected of being part of a chain of distribution of a big importation but says they sourced it locally, then again this is powerful evidence connecting them with the importation".
Ms Fordham says it could also help WA police if the research can connect a suspect with a crop grown locally.
In this regard, Dr Watling says that some cases are more straightforward than others.
"We had some interesting some time ago where marijuana grown in the Goldfields had actually got gold in it."
He says all his research is shared with WA police forensic officers.
"Additionally we do work with them in projects where they need new forensic investigational tools and try to develop 'custom' application, so to speak, to assist their investigations and even unblock 'dead ends'."
Dr Watling says he expects Australia to be at the forefront of developing geographical provenancing for use in law enforcement.
"The technology is ground breaking and as such is recognised by police forces and we expect greater use as the technology becomes recognised worldwide."
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