Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 Source: Boston Globe (MA) Copyright: 2001 Globe Newspaper Company Contact: P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378 Feedback: http://extranet.globe.com/LettersEditor/default.asp Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/ Author: Ralph Ranalli DRUG LAB BACKLOGS HANDCUFF CASES Increased Seizures Overwhelm System It took the combined might of the Lawrence Police, the State Police, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Essex County Sheriff's Department to get suspected heroin traffickers Luis Cotto of Lowell and Carlos Vargas of Lawrence off the street, but just one tardy drug analysis report to put them back out. Understaffed and overwhelmed by a flood of designer-drug seizures, the two state laboratories that analyze seized drugs for local police have seen their backlog of unprocessed samples quadruple over the last six months, leading to suspected drug dealers being released on bail and charges being dropped in some cases. Arrested on Aug. 31 by a multi-agency drug and gang task force with 675 bags of white powder, Cotto and Vargas, both 27, were ordered held on $25,000 cash bail by a Lawrence District Court judge. ''This was a signficant amount of drugs,'' Lawrence police Captain Michael Molchan said. ''These guys were not street dealers.'' Essex County prosecutors appeared in court five times over the next four months to report that a probable cause hearing could not go forward because police were still waiting for the seized substances to be analyzed by the state drug laboratory in Jamaica Plain. The lab report finally arrived last week, confirming that the bags seized from Cotto and Vargas did indeed contain heroin. But it came too late; the frustrated judge had already reduced their bail to $10,000, which the two quickly posted. Prosecutors say the case is an example of the problems created by a fast-growing backlog at the two laboratories that analyze most of the illegal drugs seized in the state. The delay in drug analysis is resulting in cases being dismissed, said Essex District Attorney Kevin Burke. All drugs seized in criminal cases must be tested to make sure that defendants are being prosecuted for selling heroin, cocaine or ecstasy, not talcum powder or baby laxative. Officials at the state Drug Analysis Laboratories in Jamaica Plain and Amherst admit that, beginning last summer, the number of drug samples began exceeding the number its staff and equipment could process. In November, for instance, the lab received 3,372 samples from local police departments for analysis but only managed to analyze 2,647, falling 725 samples behind in that month alone. In one year, officials said, the backlog has grown from about 1,500 samples and a two-week delay, to 6,200 samples and a 71-day average delay. More than two-thirds of the samples analyzed in December had been sitting around for more than 50 days, according to a report sent to state judges last month. Last month showed some improvement, but only because there was a signficant decrease in the number of samples submitted for testing. If those levels return to what they were in the second half of 2000, the backlog could start growing even worse, said Ralph Timperi, director of the State Laboratory Institute. ''Our staffing is obviously not ideal,'' Timperi said. ''There is no margin for error at this point.'' The two Department of Public Health laboratories analyze drugs mostly seized by local police officers for cases. Both the State Police and Boston police have their own laboratories, which handle seizures from large drug conspiracy cases. After years of problems caused by antiquated equipment and understaffing, Timperi said, the labs received a much-needed influx of new funding for personnel and $1 million in state-of-the-art drug analysis equipment in the mid-1990s. Until recently, they had almost always lived up to an agreement that DPH officials worked out with the state judiciary - that the labs would have an average backlog of no more than 1,500 samples and an average processing time of two weeks. But there has been an increase in both drug use and drug arrests in Massachusetts, according to law enforcement officials, driven by new designer drugs such as ecstasy. At maximum output, the lab can handle about 2,900 samples a month. It received more than 3,200 a month last year, Timperi said. Temporary staff problems and the need to develop tests for ecstasy and gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, known as the date-rape drug, put the lab even further behind, he said. DPH officials have asked the Legislature to fund two more positions at the lab next year to help deal with the backlog, Timperi said. So far, according to state court spokesman Joan Kenney, the state's judges don't view the growing backlog as a ''big problem.'' But that view is not shared by many prosecutors and defense lawyers. ''It is particularly frustrating when you know you have the goods, and you know you are going to get a positive drug certification back from the lab, and you sit there and watch the case erode like sand under your feet,'' said veteran Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Gerald Fitzgerald. ''It lets the defense lawyers chip away at the bail or the turn up the pressure for a better deal.'' But Boston defense lawyer Charles Rankin said that, for defendants whose bail requests are denied, delays mean they are kept in jail unfairly. Negative drug tests are rare, he acknowledged, but they do happen. ''It's inexcusable,'' Rankin said. ''The state knows how many cases they are going to have in a given year, so if they don't have the personnel to handle the work, there's no excuse.'' Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley agrees that the state labs need more funding to do their job properly. ''I don't think the courts want people to get a free ride because the Commonwealth won't spare the resources,'' she said. ''But they have to be fair to the defendants as well as the public. The public wants quick action and they want their streets safe. But that comes with a price tag.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens