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#  Swab Testing: Do the Cops Have Their Priorities Straight?

January 23 2014

Written by Lisa Cerda.

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***![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Jan-2014/cw12070l.png)CERDADFIED***-The Los Angeles Police Department was the recipient of a state grant that supplied a portable swab testing tool to drivers they suspect are under the influence. The justification cited was an increase of medical marijuana in use.

A press conference highlighted the use of breathalyzers at sobriety check points and how this new tool allows for immediate results unlike the blood test that was previously used. Suspected drugged drivers are asked to consent to a voluntary swabbing of the oral tissues.

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer suggested, *“There’s a growing recognition that driving under the influence of drugs is something we need to be clamping down on more effectively,”* City prosecutors have not used results from the test as evidence in any case even though they have used the test over 50 times.

This portable device tests oral fluids for a variety of drugs, including; amphetamines, cocaine, benzodiazepine (Xanax), methadone, methamphetamine, narcotic analgesics, and THC. The use of medical marijuana can be dictated if it was used within several hours. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “THC rapidly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries the chemical to organs throughout the body, including the brain. The effects of smoked marijuana can last from 1 to 3 hours. If marijuana is consumed in foods or beverages, the effects appear later—usually in 30 minutes to 1 hour—but can last up to 4 hours.“

So if the effects of marijuana wear off much earlier, how can a medical indication of its use within 7 hours be relevant? Is there a level of intoxication indicated or merely the presence of it?

Los Angeles County has the largest DNA-sample backlog in the U.S., especially on the high number of unprocessed rape kits. This is a real concern because tax dollars are being spent for a massive rollout of drug testing, yet we have people in jail waiting for DNA testing results to either exonerate or convict them. The right to a speedy trial is being denied in these cases.

According to an article in Stateline, “Los Angeles had a backlog of 6,132 rape kits in 2009, but [spent](http://controller.lacity.org/stellent/groups/electedofficials/@ctr_contributor/documents/contributor_web_content/lacityp_018854.pdf) $10.6 million in federal grants, donations from the Los Angeles Police Foundation and the city’s general fund to clear the backlog to nearly zero by 2011, according to a report from the city comptroller’s office. The money was mainly spent on outsourcing the analysis of old DNA samples to private labs.”

The Office of Justice Programs [fact sheet](http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/newsroom/factsheets/ojpfs_dnabacklog.html) details the impact of the backlog of DNA samples:

● A sample of more than 2,000 agencies found that 14 percent of unsolved homicide cases (an estimated 3,975 cases) and 18 percent of unsolved rape cases (an estimated 27,595 cases) contained forensic evidence not submitted by law enforcement agencies to a crime laboratory for analysis.

● 23 percent of all unsolved property crimes (an estimated 5,126,719 cases) contained unanalyzed forensic evidence.

● NIJ has provided funds to assist in testing approximately 1.8 million DNA samples taken from convicted offenders and arrestees since 2005, leading to more than18,000 hits in CODIS.

● As of August 2010, more than 8.7 million offender profiles and 332,000 forensic profiles from crime scene samples had been added to CODIS, resulting in more than 124,800 hits and assisting more than 121,900 investigations.

● 99 percent of publicly funded crime laboratories reported that they would not have sufficient funding if NIJ grants were no longer available.

● Evidence collected and stored in law enforcement evidence rooms awaiting laboratory analysis is not part of a crime laboratory backlog. NIJ considers this untested evidence not yet sent to laboratories to be a separate issue from backlogs in crime laboratories.

● By 2009, the federal government and all 50 states had passed bills requiring that DNA always be collected from suspects under arrest and offenders convicted of certain crimes. This evidence accounts for the other types of DNA backlogs at laboratories. These samples are tested, reviewed, and uploaded into the national DNA database, CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), which is operated by the FBI.

● (NIJ) defines a backlogged case as one that remains untested for 30 days after it has been submitted to a laboratory. Because backlogs are not static—the number of backlogged cases in crime laboratories changes daily—identifying exact numbers of backlogged cases is difficult. In many laboratories, new DNA submissions come in at a rate faster than case reports go out.

Their Source: [***Making Sense of DNA Backlogs, 2010 — Myths vs. Reality***](http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/232197.pdf)

Is in the field testing the highest priority for state funding? You decide.

***(Lisa Cerda is a contributor to CityWatch, an Activist and VP of the Community Rights Foundation of LA)***

**CityWatch**

**Vol 12 Issue 7**

**Pub: Jan 24, 2014**

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