Highway Patrol testing device that detects methamphetamine

[shain from kane]

http://www.springfieldnews-leader.com
The Associated Press


SPRINGFIELD, Mo. --Some Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers have been testing a device that can detect even microscopic traces of methamphetamine with the simple click of a button.

The scanner, which still is in the developmental stage and hasn't been put on the market, is considered by some to be the future of crime-fighting technology. To others, it represents a potential affront to constitutional rights.

A Tucson, Ariz., firm, CDEX Inc., created the hand-held device and decided to test it in Missouri because of the high number of meth labs in the state.
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The company plans to sell the device initially for between $2,000 and $5,500, with the price likely to drop eventually. While law enforcement will be the main market at first, CDEX foresees uses in schools, hotels and the real estate and security industries.

At some point, the company plans to expand the technology to detect other illicit drugs or explosives.
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Critics include civil libertarians and defense attorneys who question its use in the prosecution of drug cases. While the device has been tested, none of the results have been independently verified.

"Anytime you have testing of a device by someone who stands to make a lot of money off of it, I am always suspect of that," said Stacie Bilyeu, a Springfield defense attorney. "If the testing was done by unbiased, nonpartisan groups, the results would be more reliable."
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There also are questions about whether the scanner would represent an illegal search or whether the discovery of a trace amount is an implication of guilt.

"This scanner only detects chemicals, not criminal conduct," Bilyeu said.

Regardless of the unanswered questions, CDEX says the device is extremely valuable because no evidence is destroyed in an ultraviolet scan, unlike chemical tests that are used to determine whether a substance is meth.
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http://www.bnd.com/breaking_news/story/162849.html
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Looks like I picked a good day to give up meth.

[Downtown Hound]

1. Yay! Jail them all!

Our prison system isn't overcrowded enough. Now we're going to jam 'em full with people that had traces of some chemicals in their car.

[Taverner]

2. Great - more money wasted on a losing battle

The War on Drugs is beyond joke at this point.

[shance]

3. This and the mind control/psychic thought detector should be great in catching criminals.

Or at least those who oppose the Administration and those abusing power.

Apparently they can arrest you as well if there is no conclusive proof and/or the machine comes up with inconclusive results.

So in other words the machine can be totally defunct and you can be arrested any way.

[kickysnana]

4. Great I carry actifed for my asthmatic bronchitis n/t

[NorthernSpy]

5. what if someone decided to salt the mine, so to speak?

What if someone decided to use the sensitivity of the device against the testers by fairy-dusting the tested-for substance throughout key areas in the broader locale to be tested? If essentially all of the testing area tests positive, that's about the same thing as none of it testing positive (in the sense of not producing the kinds of information that they're likely to want).

Alternately, someone could use that same tactic to create false "areas of concern" for testers to find.



I suspect that this company just wants to sell its shiny, resource-wasting, minimally-useful gimmick, and the media are obliging with the usual ad-copy style news reports.

[madokie]

6. The last 15 plus years of my employment life I was a concrete finisher

its pretty strenous work so it makes a person sweat quite a bit and I could smell the guys who were on the powder no problem. they likewise prolly could smell the devil weed on me but what the heck. I really feel for people who get hooked on meth its an insidious drug to say the least. The ones who do finally get off of it will tell you themselves or the ones I know and talk to would anyway that they will never be the same for having done it. I thank my lucky stars each day that when I first tried it years ago I didn't like the feeling I got, with my addictive personality I would have been pushing up daisies long ago. so thankful I never liked it.

I just wished they didn't lump pot in with drugs such as meth