Review of Alaska crime lab's drug testing includes criminal investigation, state officials say

[unhappycamper]

http://www.adn.com/2014/01/15/3274789/troopers-review-of-alaska-crime.html



The State of Alaska Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory in Anchorage on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014.

Review of Alaska crime lab's drug testing includes criminal investigation, state officials say
By CASEY GROVE
January 15, 2014 Updated 10 hours ago

Alaska authorities are conducting a review of the state crime lab's handling of drug samples that includes a criminal investigation by Alaska State Troopers.

According to the Department of Public Safety, staff at the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory in Anchorage have discovered problems with the lab's control samples of six illegal drugs: morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, opium, codeine, and amphetamine. The "irregularities," as the department called them in a statement Wednesday, involve foreign matter found in the lab's "controlled substance reference standards."

The reference standards are the pure form of drugs laboratory analysts use to compare to suspected drugs seized by law enforcement as evidence in criminal cases, said John Skidmore, chief of the Department of Law's Criminal Division. The standards are also used to train new analysts on how to conduct drug testing, Skidmore said.

State officials are not saying whether they think a lab employee or anyone else stole drugs from the control samples and replaced them with something to cover up the theft. But defense attorneys said Wednesday's announcement could put current drug prosecutions and past convictions in question.

[Blue_In_AK]

1. I think someone at the crime lab has an addiction problem.

This all seems pretty suspicious.

[raven mad]

2. In addition to an addiction problem -

there appears to be a severe oversight problem. The way the lab protocols are supposed to be met evidently is not the way the actual job is performed!

I think we're going to see a lot of defense attorneys doing very happy dances - and prosecutors with long faces and heavier steps.