Friday, February 6, 2015

Spice and Bath Salts Testing Options

     The Utah Bureau of Forensic Services Laboratory (i.e., the State Crime Lab) can test for synthetic marijuana, i.e., Spice, and bath salts seized outside of the human body. So your officers can submit a seized baggie of Spice or bath salts and get a test result back for later use in a prosecution. However, the Tox Lab does not test for Spice and bath salts in human body fluids.  This is mainly a resource issue.  So if you have a DUI Spice or bath salts case for which you want a toxicology final report for a prosecution, the best option is for the arresting agency to submit the biological sample to NMS Labs in Pennsylvania. http://nmslabs.com  (last accessed Feb. 6, 2015) Spice tests cost between $62.00 to $530.00, depending on what the arresting and prosecuting agency want done. The test cost, plus the cost of flying the NMS Labs expert to Utah, and then paying them $250.00 an hour to testify, makes this option cost prohibitive for most DUI prosecutions. However, in DUIs where there is compelling reason to spend those amounts of money, NMS Labs appears to be the best option.

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