Now that Governor Andrew Cuomo has declared war on synthetic drugs, can police crime labs keep up with the demand for scientific analysis?
Tuesday's raid by Syracuse police on the Sky High head shop on Butternut Street may be the first under new health department regulations declaring synthetic drugs like bath salts illegal. The raid took place less than an hour after Governor Cuomo came to Syracuse to announce the state's crackdown on this new class of drugs. Police spokesman Sergeant Gary Bulinski told CNY Central's Jim Kenyon, " It gives local law enforcement the ability to go in, take some enforcement action themselves and get this scourge off the streets."
The suspected drugs confiscated at the Sky High head shop will be analyzed by the Onondaga County crime laboratory at the Wallie Howard Forensic Center in Syracuse. Health Commissioner Doctor Cynthia Morrow says there is no backlog at that facility. Morrow says the county is about to invest $46,000 on a gas chromatagraph flame ionization detector to improve its qualitative analysis of synthetic drugs.
But most police departments rely on the State Police crime lab in Albany for drug analyses. That lab is experiencing a backup and has been forced to farm out drug tests to private labs. Oneida City Police Chief David Meeker says he's still waiting for lab results from a head shop his officers raided back in May. Meeker says his department will be charged $1300 for tests that are conducted by outside laboratories. He calls it "cost prohibitive" and will consult with a local bath salts task force about asking the Governor for relief from those costs.
In addition to the backlog it is experiencing, the State Police crime lab must also come up with new protocols for the proper analysis of synthetic drugs. State Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico told reporters Tuesday, "It takes a little time to develop the standards to test it but the lab people are on top of it. They're communicating with other labs and together with the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) we're developing new standards. we'll be ready."
