We no longer seize anything other than weed ourselves. Anything else-- pills, coke, heroin, etc., we standby for our crime scene technicans. It's a big deal.

quote:

Originally posted by MNSIG:

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
We no longer field test ANYTHING. It is all packaged and sent to the lab.

I can understand the risk, but how do you determine if "that powder" on the console is coke or donut residue?

Exactly as one did before send it off to the lab. While in some cases it is still out in the open we just package it. Before the step of testing added a an extra risk for exposure especially before we switched test kits that would frequently rip gloves and even break skin.
Even the test kits were not difinitive and the substance was still listed as "suspected" until verified by the lab. Like any investigation you look at the totality of the cicumstances and all the evidence present to make your determination.
Just seeing ohh white powder and assuming drugs would not work very well in court. What other indicators lead you to believe that it was narcotics.

Very sad but probably good for the gene pool.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
We no longer seize anything other than weed ourselves. Anything else-- pills, coke, heroin, etc., we standby for our crime scene technicans. It's a big deal.

So these dirtbag junkies and dealers are costing us yet more money to deal with their bullshit.

related story

http://www.foxnews.com/health/...s-still-unknown.html

Days after a counterfeit street version of a prescription painkiller caused dozens of overdoses in Georgia and as many as four deaths, authorities say they are still trying to identify the source of the new drug.

The drugs were being sold on the street as Percocet

Preliminary results from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab suggest the counterfeit pills contained a mixture of two synthetic opioids, including a previously unidentified drug that’s chemically similar to fentanyl. The pain medication is 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin, and about one fifth the cost

“These are not chemists producing these things. These are idiots in a garage that are manufacturing a drug that’s gonna be used and abused. We call it manufacturing death.”

According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, the street drugs are so potent that overdose victims require “massive doses” of the emergency treatment naloxone (Narcan).

quote:

Preliminary results from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab suggest the counterfeit pills contained a mixture of two synthetic opioids, including a previously unidentified drug that’s chemically similar to fentanyl. The pain medication is 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin, and about one fifth the cost

How do you stop that? It's heartbreaking but I think the only answer is to stop the narcon and if users die, so be it. When the bodies start stacking up the message might get through.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
They all died in vein....

OMG!!! Hahahhhahhaaaa!!!!!

I see it every day. Around here, it's mainly heroin. Sad as hell to see young men and women in a coma they'll never come out of and their parents having to make the decision to pull the plug on life support. Even worse, is with the children have to make that decision for their parents.

quote:

Originally posted by doublesharp:

quote:

Preliminary results from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab suggest the counterfeit pills contained a mixture of two synthetic opioids, including a previously unidentified drug that’s chemically similar to fentanyl. The pain medication is 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin, and about one fifth the cost

How do you stop that? It's heartbreaking but I think the only answer is to stop the narcon and if users die, so be it. When the bodies start stacking up the message might get through.

Sadly, quite the opposite. You are not thinking as a user thinks. As one who sees a person brought back from the dead with narcan on almost a daily basis anymore I get a chance to talk with them afterwards.
They seek out the dealers who they know people have died from their batch. As strange as it sounds they pretty much all say the same thing that dealer has the good stuff and the ones that die just can't handle it but I can. I hear it constantly even from those that have been brought back on multiple occasions.
Sadly Death is not a deterrent for these people. It baffles me.