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Field drug test kit false positives lead to jail time and job loss for innocents Login/Join 
Leatherneck
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quote:
Originally posted by MNSIG:
quote:
Originally posted by Pale Horse:
It wasn't half of one pill, it was half of the bottle of pills.

quote:
Last year she was taking a popular vitamin -- folic acid -- in hopes of improving their chances. She said she put half the tablets in a plastic baggy so she wouldn't forget to also take them at work.


So what? It's F'n vitamins!!


Yeah, I agree. I am not defending anyone or anything with my post. I am simply pointing out a missed fact.




“Everybody wants a Sig in the sheets but a Glock on the streets.” -bionic218 04-02-2014
 
Posts: 15249 | Location: Florida | Registered: May 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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This was a total bullshit stop from the get go.

1. DWB....both Simon and Clarice are black (watch the video)
2. The stop was for....a plastic license plate cover...sure, I bet they stop everyone in Doraville for that "crime"
3. Cop then says, "I smell Weed". That is how the lying fuck gets them out of the car.

It goes down hill from there. Tell me about "consent" when you are surrounded by armed police, on the side of the highway and you know they lied about smelling weed in your car. All the kit does is give them an excuse to arrest the passengers, then they can "inventory search" the car before impounding it, looking for the big stash. Those cops were sure they would find drugs.

They will sue the Test Kit manufacturer and the PD office and the cops personally. And the fun starts when the Kit company clearly shows there aint no way folic acid can show positive. This will be a classic 42 USC 1983 case.
 
Posts: 2044 | Registered: September 19, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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It's also a product of the "war on drugs" I would presume. I realize that esp the hardcore stuff: meth, heroin, crack, etc does a lot of societal damage, but a lot of innocent or at least safe recreational users get caught in the net. You can see on Cops and Live PD and other shows how police go into beast mode when they think they've found drugs. It's like catnip for them.



Mongo only pawn in game of life...
 
Posts: 683 | Location: DFW | Registered: August 15, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I have yet to get a false positive on a test kit. I have gotten false negatives though. No big deal let them go and tell them it is going to the crime lab. If it comes back positive I will write a warrant for their arrest.

Someone here posted that your pills in the bag are not illegal. Maybe not in your state but, in my state if it is not in the original container it is a violation of law. But, a little common sense goes a long way. Soccer mom with tylenol or ibuprofen in a ziplock really? So what I get it. Little mouthy junky Johnny raiding grandma’s pain medicine to sell to kids after school different story.
 
Posts: 4022 | Registered: January 17, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Still finding my way
Picture of Ryanp225
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Everyone involved in holding that couple should receive felony kidnapping charges and then have to pay restitution for life.
Fuck those brownshirts.
 
Posts: 10827 | Registered: January 04, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
What would soncorn do?
Picture of soncorn
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quote:
Originally posted by 357fuzz:
I have yet to get a false positive on a test kit. I have gotten false negatives though. No big deal let them go and tell them it is going to the crime lab. If it comes back positive I will write a warrant for their arrest.

Someone here posted that your pills in the bag are not illegal. Maybe not in your state but, in my state if it is not in the original container it is a violation of law. But, a little common sense goes a long way. Soccer mom with tylenol or ibuprofen in a ziplock really? So what I get it. Little mouthy junky Johnny raiding grandma’s pain medicine to sell to kids after school different story.


You don’t list your state, but in Georgia where this happened that does not apply to vitamins. I can’t find a state that requires vitamins to be in the original container.


Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
 
Posts: 1387 | Location: Fort Worth, TX, USA | Registered: October 20, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by soncorn:
quote:
Originally posted by 357fuzz:
I have yet to get a false positive on a test kit. I have gotten false negatives though. No big deal let them go and tell them it is going to the crime lab. If it comes back positive I will write a warrant for their arrest.

Someone here posted that your pills in the bag are not illegal. Maybe not in your state but, in my state if it is not in the original container it is a violation of law. But, a little common sense goes a long way. Soccer mom with tylenol or ibuprofen in a ziplock really? So what I get it. Little mouthy junky Johnny raiding grandma’s pain medicine to sell to kids after school different story.


You don’t list your state, but in Georgia where this happened that does not apply to vitamins. I can’t find a state that requires vitamins to be in the original container.


You’re right. Prescriptions need to be in original container. I should have clarified.
 
Posts: 4022 | Registered: January 17, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lead slingin'
Parrot Head
Picture of Modern Day Savage
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I chose the original article to post because I assumed, and the story seemed to suggest, that the field drug test kits producing these false positives were occurring around the country by any of the LE departments using the specific kit.

But, it seems to me that a number of these false positives are occurring in Georgia.

This was the original story that caught my attention.

Police mistook her cotton candy for meth and sent her to jail. Now she’s suing.

By Michael Brice-Saddler November 26

When Monroe County sheriff’s deputies asked Dasha Fincher and David Morris Jr. to step out of their vehicle during a Dec. 31, 2016, traffic stop in Georgia, police said Fincher was “very nervous” and “started to shake.”

They were stopped because of a “very dark window tint” and consented to a search of their vehicle, according to an arrest report obtained by CBS affiliate WMAZ-TV. That’s when one of the deputies found a bag containing a “blue crystal like substance” on the passenger-side floorboard, where Fincher had been sitting.

She told Monroe County Deputies Cody Maples and Allen Henderson that the bag contained cotton candy, according to the report.

But a field test showed otherwise.

The bag’s contents tested positive for meth and MDMA, a recreational drug. Fincher and Morris were arrested as a result, according to a lawsuit filed by Fincher on Thursday. She was charged with trafficking meth and possession of meth with the intent to distribute. It was not clear whether Morris was also charged.

Fincher would spend more than three months in jail and is now suing Monroe County, the two deputies who arrested her and the company responsible for the drug test that confused her sugary snack with a Schedule 1 drug.

The lawsuit, which was obtained by WMAZ, states that the roadside test kit was manufactured by North Carolina-based company Sirchie. The suit alleges that Sirchie’s Nark II roadside test has “a history of producing false positive results.”

An employee who answered a reporter’s call to Sirchie’s main phone line late Monday afternoon said a spokesman wouldn’t be in until Tuesday.

The suit says Fincher was held on a $1 million cash bond, which she was unable to pay, causing her to remain incarcerated. In March 2017, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations crime lab found that the blue material was actually cotton candy, as Fincher had told the deputies. Fincher was not released from jail until April 4, 2017, and the charges against her were dropped April 18.

Fincher claims her incarceration forced her to miss the birth of her twin grandsons and prevented her from being with her daughter during a miscarriage. The lawsuit alleges that the deputies “had no training in drug recognition” and should have known the roadside test was flawed. Moreover, they failed to disclose the “unlikelihood that such a large quantity of methamphetamine would be transported in an open, large plastic bag laying on the floorboard of a car.”

Instead, the suit says, the two deputies “falsely presented their findings to the court as scientifically reliable.”

Fincher is seeking punitive damages from Monroe County, Sirchie and the two deputies responsible for her arrest, according to the suit. Fincher did not respond to a Facebook message Monday evening, and her attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

WMAZ reports that Monroe County police referred inquiries to Benjamin Vaughn, attorney for Monroe County. Vaughn’s office did not return a call requesting comment Monday afternoon.
 
Posts: 7324 | Location: the Centennial state | Registered: August 21, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Truckin' On
Picture of AH.74
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How the hell do you get from Dec 31 to March without testing something, while holding someone in Jail? JFC.


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Posts: 7342 | Location: Hermit’s Peak | Registered: November 14, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by AH.74:
How the hell do you get from Dec 31 to March without testing something, while holding someone in Jail? JFC.


The entire story is beyond belief. You could absolutely ruin an innocent persons entire life. Could lose their job, house, all of their possessions, etc.
 
Posts: 21335 | Registered: June 12, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Still finding my way
Picture of Ryanp225
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quote:
Originally posted by AH.74:
How the hell do you get from Dec 31 to March without testing something, while holding someone in Jail? JFC.

I could see holding them while the lab does another test but only if it's to be performed THAT DAY. This is behavior that is more akin to the old Soviet Russia. Not fucking Georgia!
 
Posts: 10827 | Registered: January 04, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by 357fuzz:You’re right. Prescriptions need to be in original container. I should have clarified.


Even that is a crock of BS that probably predates the internet, smartphones and computers in cars. Any drug can be looked up in seconds to see what the tablet should look like and prescriptions for narcotics are maintained in an electronic database (at least here in MN) to prevent doctor shopping. It is very easy to know what the person has and if they should have it.
 
Posts: 8944 | Location: The Red part of Minnesota | Registered: October 06, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Big Stack
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Do you want to live without law enforcement. That's where that goes, and why it will never happen.

quote:
Originally posted by Ryanp225:
Everyone involved in holding that couple should receive felony kidnapping charges and then have to pay restitution for life.
Fuck those brownshirts.
 
Posts: 21240 | Registered: November 05, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Truckin' On
Picture of AH.74
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quote:
Originally posted by BBMW:
Do you want to live without law enforcement. That's where that goes, and why it will never happen.

quote:
Originally posted by Ryanp225:
Everyone involved in holding that couple should receive felony kidnapping charges and then have to pay restitution for life.
Fuck those brownshirts.


I understand Ryan's sentiment. Aside from the extreme- reasonable and prudent people are not wrong in demanding accountability. In addition to not having LEO's act like a bunch of corrupt, power-hungry assholes violating the rights and trust of the people they're supposed to be serving.


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Posts: 7342 | Location: Hermit’s Peak | Registered: November 14, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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The main question here (from a lawsuit perspective) is how closely are we talking about with these colors?

In other words, will the manufacturer trot out evidence that the color that shows up for folic acid absolutely cannot be confused with the color that would show up for ecstasy, no way shape or form?

Or are the colors similar enough that an officer who already things he has ecstasy will "see" what he expects to see when he runs the test? Because having that confirmation bias can be a significant problem when you are dealing with a test that is not meant to be a confirmatory test.
 
Posts: 1168 | Registered: July 06, 2016Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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As for me, when I worked the street, if I found anything I thought was dope related, I shipped it to the crime lad for a full examination. All the suspects were kicked loose after I fully identified them. They were not going anywhere. And once the lab results came back, I kicked it over to our dope unit. That's what they are there for.
In many cases, I already had other charges that jailed the suspects. Rely solely on field test to make an arrest with no other offenses? Never did it. And the prosecutors I worked for would not accept charges based on a field test either.
In the referenced case, not only are the cops wrong, their prosecutor and court are equally wrong.


End of Earth: 2 Miles
Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles
 
Posts: 16004 | Location: Marquette MI | Registered: July 08, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
When you fall, I will be there to catch you -With love, the floor
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quote:
How the hell do you get from Dec 31 to March without testing something



Very easy. Limited labs with a lot of samples coming in. Took weeks to get back results when I was working.


Richard Scalzo
Epping, NH

http://www.bigeastakitarescue.net
 
Posts: 5803 | Location: Epping, NH | Registered: October 16, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
When you fall, I will be there to catch you -With love, the floor
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quote:
How the hell do you get from Dec 31 to March without testing something

quote:
Any drug can be looked up in seconds to see what the tablet should look like and prescriptions for narcotics are maintained in an electronic database (at least here in MN) to prevent doctor shopping. It is very easy to know what the person has and if they should have it.


Looking up the medication. Yes. Looking up prescription records. No way you're getting access to that. My dentist can't even send my tooth xray to another doctor without using a special encrypted system.

Testing same day? Never going to happen unless you're a TV shop. Many labs are a significant distance away and backed up.

Not getting the one million bond unless their past history was peppered with drup offenses.


Richard Scalzo
Epping, NH

http://www.bigeastakitarescue.net
 
Posts: 5803 | Location: Epping, NH | Registered: October 16, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Go Vols!
Picture of Oz_Shadow
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Seen it happen for valid prescription drugs too. If you remove it from the bottle you better have proof it was prescribed to you. Getting a doctor into a court is a pain too.
 
Posts: 17871 | Location: SE Michigan | Registered: February 10, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by rscalzo:
Looking up the medication. Yes. Looking up prescription records. No way you're getting access to that. My dentist can't even send my tooth xray to another doctor without using a special encrypted system.


How is accessing the Rx any greater violation of HIPAA than requiring the patient to produce a bottle with their name on it to prove their innocence and avoid being arrested?
 
Posts: 8944 | Location: The Red part of Minnesota | Registered: October 06, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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