Quote:If you’re caught with drugs in Las Vegas, NV, there’s a 99 percent chance you’re going to be convicted of a felony, even if the drugs in your possession are something as simple as aspirin and caffeine. That’s because, as The Free Thought Project has previously reported, the field tests, conducted by minimally trained police officers, are flawed.

The $2 field drug test, manufactured by The Safariland Group, have been proven to be unreliable. And according to the manufacturer, should not be used as a stand-alone test for convictions related to drug possession. But that’s precisely what’s been occurring in Clark County, NV. And here’s how it works to serve as an injustice for unsuspecting citizens.

First, a traffic stop, or a conversation with an officer of the peace leads to a search of a person’s vehicle or person. When a suspected illegal drug is found, a police officer then takes the substance and tests it with The Safariland Group’s field test which, most of the time, produces a false positive result for illegal drugs — even if the test kit is completely empty.

The suspected drug user or trafficker is then taken into custody, charged with possession and spends time in jail, potentially leading to a loss in wages, time away from family and work, and may be traumatic to the individual. Instead of going to trial, and spending more time in jail awaiting a judgement by a jury of their peers, when the citizen goes before a judge during an initial hearing, the individual often pleads guilty, is given a fine, or some other punitive measure (rehab, therapy, community service, etc.) and is allowed to return to the community.

There’s only one major problem in the process. The Metropolitan Police Department’s own crime lab has declared the tests are unreliable and may be leading to false positives, false imprisonment, wrongful convictions, or worse; prison time.

Now, armed with the latest facts, and a result of increased news publicity surrounding the unreliable drug field tests, a Clark County Defense Attorneys organization has formed a committee, and is preparing to challenge the validity of those cheap, and admittedly unreliable tests.

Yeah, AFTER they got caught and it went public!   :smalleyeroll: 

Quote:“Laurie Diefenbach, a veteran defense lawyer and member of the committee, said the group is studying several options for taking on the routine use of the tests.” According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, “one option would be to file a broad motion asking the Las Vegas Justice Court to reconsider the admissibility of the tests at preliminary hearings,” because the “tests are not admissible as evidence at trial in Las Vegas.” By filing a broad motion objecting to the unreliable drug tests the Journal reported, “Individual judges” would then be able to “make their own judgments on whether to permit field tests to be used in the plea process.”

(Highlights by me)

If they know the tests are faulty, why even give the judges an opportunity to use them in court at all?    

If you want to read more, go here to get the rest of the story: Source Story