Narcopouch

When someone is arrested and charged with a drug offense, police officers often rely on a “field test” to confirm the substance is an illegal substance. However, a commonly used field test known as the NarcoPouch is being called into question.

An example is a case that occurred in Broward County earlier this year. A woman parked her truck and went for a hike to a remote canal in the woods to watch birds and be one with nature. While in the woods , she lit a “smudge stick,” which is a combination of sage, sweet grass, and lavender, and placed it in a bowl. When she returned to her truck, law enforcement confronted her. One spotted her incense and asked if he could see it. He took the bowl and incense, asking whether it was marijuana.

Law enforcement believed it smelled like marijuana and conducted the field test, which proved ‘positive for marijuana.’ She was eventually arrested. The substance later turned out NOT to contain marijuana. The problem with the test, in addition to identifying marijuana or hashish, the D-L test frequently reads positive for tea, nutmeg, sage, and dozens of other chemicals—including ‘resorcinols,’ a family of over-the-counter medicines, which, includes Sucrets throat lozenges.

If you find yourself in this situation and believe your were wrongly charged with a crime, call DiRenzo Defense to investigate the arrest and get to the bottom of the situation.