On behalf of the Society of Forensic Toxicology (SOFT) and its Board of Directors (BOD), l would like to extend to all of our membership, friends and supporters, a warm and open welcome to the SOFT website. As your 2010 President of SOFT I am pleased that you have an interest in Forensic Science in general and in Forensic Toxicology in particular, and have come to our website to see what is new and interesting in our discipline.

SOFT is an international organization of practicing forensic toxicologists who work in areas of postmortem forensic toxicology, human performance toxicology and workplace drug testing. The SOFT organization was formed originally to promote the cause of forensic toxicology, advance education in forensic toxicology and ensure knowledgeable input into standards governing the profession. All of these areas are important in providing essential and useful data and analysis to the forensic community, as well as, the general public. Additionally, within this context our membership over the years has continued to work to maintain ethical practice in our vocation, while additionally working towards setting standards of practice (e.g. laboratory guidelines), and supporting efforts towards laboratory accreditation and personal certification.

Postmortem toxicology is an area of practice that looks to assisting in the determination of the cause and manner of death in the investigation into why or how an individual has expired. Drug related fatalities can occur directly from the actions of a drug, alcohol, or chemical poison alone or in combination, indirectly through actions that occur while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, as a result of non-compliant or misuse of prescribed medication(s), or through unexpected and/or unintended interactions between combinations of prescribed medications, over-the-counter medications, and drugs of abuse. In many ways toxicology findings from death investigations involving previously healthy individuals, children, and the elderly, who die unexpectedly coupled with a comprehensive investigation involving history and pathology can provide key information as how or why a death may have occurred.

Investigations in human performance toxicology include analysis of evidence taken from the living to evaluate the impact of drugs, alcohol, chemicals on behavior and performance. These investigations are important in assessing how or why an event that results in injury, property damage, the death of another individual, may have been impacted by diminished performance. Interactions with other forensic expertise i.e. drug recognition experts (DREs), health care professionals, and witnessed behavior, help to complete an effort in the determination of circumstances behind an accident, injury or an incident resulting in an unintended death.

Finally, workplace drug testing toxicology has become an important element in minimizing and controlling the impact of recreational drug use/abuse in the workplace. Minimizing the use and abuse of drugs in the workplace especially in individuals whose jobs directly impact the health and safety of others as direct or indirect result of their job performance is the goal of this effort. Additional benefits come from improvements in general health and wellbeing of the workforce resulting in fewer days off the job. All of these efforts are of course part of a comprehensive employee assistance program working towards a safer and healthier workforce.

All of the above aspects of our profession work within a forensic discipline meeting the expectations of proper standards of practice. This is central to the growth and development of Forensic Toxicology. Our membership has as the recently released NAS report on forensic science would wish, been working diligently towards improvements in practice and procedures using validated methods and procedures to provide accurate and reliable data and results in an ethical manner. Our profession and our membership continue to evolve and improve methods of practice through the application of both the laboratory accreditation and personal certification process. These are on-going goals carried out in a professional and peer reviewed environment.

As can be appreciated by the announcements on this website the involvements of the SOFT organization and its membership in these areas, the results of our efforts continue to grow and mature. An organization such as SOFT is the sum total of its membership, its abilities, its interests, its energy and its character. SOFT is an organization of volunteers. It is organized, ran and driven by the interests and activities of those volunteers, and it has gotten where it is, because of the efforts, hard work, and sacrifice of our membership. The legacy of our organization comes from those efforts, and the energy and strength of the character of our membership. I am proud to be a member of SOFT and to be able to be a part of its continuing growth and development. In perusing information about our organization and its membership on our website, I hope you too will appreciate the quality of this effort.

Bradford R. Hepler, Ph.D., DABFT

President, SOFT