289) How does the State prove that drugs are drugs?

Описание: How does the State prove that drugs are drugs?

So you’re pulled over for a traffic violation and the cop smells, and then discovers pot in your car; or the cops respond to your house for a domestic disturbance and when they enter they see cocaine in plain view; or for any other reason you get popped for a drug offense, and now you’re curious as to how the State is gonna prove that the drugs that were impounded are in fact controlled substances.

The first thing that’s likely to happen is that the cops will probably field test the substance at the time of your arrest. A field test is kinda like a pregnancy test - although not nearly as reliable - it’s a prepackaged drug testing kit that uses a simple color indicator to tell cops whether or not the substance they test contains narcotics.

If the field test is positive then you get arrested, the substance gets impounded and then it goes off to the crime lab for actual scientific testing. How the guys and gals donning white lab coats test it is gonna vary from place to place, but in the end a lab report will be generated and if your case goes to trial then someone from the crime lab is gonna to have appear in court, with the lab report and the substance, and subject themselves to cross examination after they offer live testimony against you.

If the substance isn’t tested then the State’s gonna have a very hard time proving that it is whatever it is they want the jury to believe that it is. Why? Because neither the cops nor the prosecutor will give it the old “taste test”, and they’re definitely not gonna ask the Judge or Jury to test it for themselves. So, absent admissible evidence that the substance is in fact “controlled”, the State’s gonna have a serious proof problem on it’s hands.

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