Don’t take meth guns to town…
The Arizona Daily Star reports on a brand new handheld device that can be used to find trace amounts of meth, marijuana, cocaine, and other drugs. [link via BoingBoing]
The device works by transmitting UV radiation at a surface, causing any chemicals to release their “spectral fingerprints.” It’s a form of spectroscopy. When a chemical is exposed to UV radiation and releases its signature, the meth gun picks that up, CDEX scientists said.
This allows the meth gun to instantly scan for meth on a surface.
“We see this as an investigative aid,” Foster said. “If I had been ingesting cocaine and then wiped it off, this unit would be able to identify the cocaine on that table or on my clothes.”
Many of you probably already see where I’m going with this. If you don’t, I draw your attention to this article on Erowid that references studies showing 80% of paper money in the United States show trace amounts of cocaine. I’d also like to point you toward this article on Snopes that confirms this is closer to truth than to urban legend.
The Snopes article suggests that only those who handle massive amounts of cash in a day need to worry about getting enough cocaine on their hands to test positive. New ‘trace amount’ tests, however, may throw that into doubt. The BBC archives can turn up stories about false positives in trace amount tests for cocaine, marijuana, and so on and so forth. The problem with a test to show any amount of cocaine is that it winds up showing any amount of cocaine, even the amount you picked up off of that five dollar bill you paid for your combo meal with.
It is yet another chapter in just two frequently recurring problems with the ongoing War On Drugs which – like most prohibition efforts – has many. First, the prohibition laws become so strict that it becomes possible for almost anybody to be arrested. You don’t have to be an actual offendor to appear on the police radar – you can just get caught up in the zero-tolerance efforts.
Second, it results in many expensive gadgets that wind up being virtually worthless. These meth guns are expected to cost $1,500 a pop. One of the proposed uses would be in cleaning up meth labs – for which it may prove valuable. For conviction, however, we’ve already seen the cocaine-on-the-money data being cited in court cases. It won’t be long before we’re able to prove that one could have picked up trace amounts of meth anywhere – it doesn’t necessarily imply use or dealing.
July 25th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Combine that with this and see what fun you get.